THE    TURK 


AND 


THE    LAND   OF   HAIG 


OR 


TURKEY  AND  ARMENIA 


DESCRIPTIVE,  HISTORICAL,  AND 
PICTURESQUE 


BY 

ANTRANIG   AZHDERIAN 


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NEW   YORK 

THE   MERSHON   COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


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1932728 


PREFACE. 

The  late  Armenian  tragedies  have  claimed  a  large 
share  of  the  world's  attention,  and  have  occasioned  the 
publication  of  a  great  deal  of  literature  on  the  subject  ; 
thanks   to  modern   facilities  of  communication,  which 
have  brought  mankind  everywhere  into  such  close  re- 
lations that  each  now  studies  the  other's  condition  and 
movements  with  more  interest,  and  each  has  a  mutual 
feeling  for  the  other's  welfare  and  destiny.     Yet  with 
all  the  information  of  the  present  situation  of  affairs  in 
the  Turkish  Empire,  there  is  still  a  manifest  lack  of 
knowledge  of  the  land,  its  historical  associations,  the 
relations  which  its  people  sustain  one  to  the  other,  and 
their  character  and  home   life.     Travelers    in  foreign 
lands,  no  matter  how  keen  in  their  observation,  attain, 
as  to  the  inner  real  life  of  the  people,  ideas  very  un- 
satisfactory, and  what  they  say  is  ofttimes  of  little  worth, 
not   being  the  true   condition   of  things.     They  have 
seen  "  through  a  glass  darkly."     I    claim  that  seeing  is 
not  knowing.     Often  many    things,  after    some    time 
spent  in  careful   observation  and  study,  seem  entirely 
different  from  our  first  impressions.     To   look  at  the 
window  is  a  different  thing  from  looking  through  the 
window.      A  great  many  travelers  during  their  flying 
trips  know  things  only  as  they  appear  to  them,  and 
often     are    deceived ;  but  a    native  looks  not    at   the 
things,  but  through  the  things  ;  he  takes  them  not  as 


vi  PREFACE. 

they  appear,  but  as  they  are.  The  language,  rehgious 
ceremonies,  manners,  and  customs,  the  social  and  moral 
conditions,  and  the  very  atmosphere  of  the  country 
itself  are  familiar  to  a  native  from  his  cradle. 

The  mission  of  this  book,  therefore,  is  not  simply  to 
set  forth  the  causes  and  the  development  of  the  late 
tragedies  in  Armenia  ;  but,  from  the  standpoint  of  a 
native,  one  who  is  born  and  reared  in  the  country,  to 
portray,  as  accurately  as  possible,  the  varied  phases  of 
the  social,  religious,  and  political  customs  and  institu- 
tions of  the  Armenians  and  the  Turks  ;  and  to  give 
some  account  of  their  history,  past  and  present,  with  an 
earnest  desire  to  bring  the  life -of  the  country  clearly 
before  the  minds  of  the  American  people,  in  the  hope 
that  a  better  understanding  of  my"  fatherland  by 
Americans  may  arouse  intelligent  and  practical  sym- 
pathy, and  thus  may  reflect  upon. that  country  some  of 
those  blessings  which  have  distinguished  America  in 
the  march  of  modern  civilization. 

The  Author. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface,    .        .        . 3 

Introduction, u 

The  Land  OF  Haig — Armenia 13 

The  Children  of  Haig— the  Armenians,  .        .        .        .35 

Armenian  Literature, 74 

The  Armenian  Church, 109 

The  Evangelical  Church,           129 

Social  and  Home  Life,           156 

The  Turks, 220 

The  Religion  of  the  Turks— Mohammedanism,       ,        .        .  248 

The  Turkish  Government,            284 

The  Eastern  Question, 318 

The  Chronic  Condition  of  Armenia,  and  the  Causes  of  Her 

Tragedies, 353 

The  Turkish  Campaign  of  Butchery 370 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Antranig  Azhderian,  the  Author,  .        .       .      Frontispiece 

Mount  Ararat 24 

Ruins  of  Ancient  Armenian  Monasteries  and  Palaces,        .  29 

Remains  of  Armenian  Antiquity, 33 

Traditional  Portrait  of  Haig,            37 

Legendary  Heroes  of  Armenia, 43 

Kings  of  Ancient  Armenia  and  the  Conversion  and  Bap- 
tism OF  King  Tiridates, 49 

Coat  of  Arms  and  Flags  of  Ancient  Armenia,        ...  57 

John  Ayvazovsk,  the  Armenian  Painter,          ....  67 
H.  E.  Daud  Pasha,   Late  Armenian  Governor  of  Mount 

Lebanon,      .        . 71 

Early  Armenian  Monasteries— Repositories  of  Learning,  83 

The  Scene  of  Armenian  Poets'  Fancy, 95 

The  Little  Lake 100 

Raphael  Patkanian 105 

Legendary  Portrait  of  Vartan  Mamigonian,         .        .        .114 

Monastery  OF  Etchmiadzin, 117 

Rt.  Rev.  Migrditch  Khirimian,  the  Armenian  Catholicos,  121 
Early  Monasteries  and  Churches  of  Armenia,      .        .        .127 

Rev.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  D.  D.,  LL.  D 137 

Armenian  Teachers 141 

American  Missionaries  Translating  the  Bible  at  Constan- 
tinople,     .        . 145 

Anatolia  College, 147 

President  C.  C.  Tracy  and  Students  of  Anatolia  College,  149 

ix 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


American  Missionaries  at  Marsovan, 

An  Armenian  Family— Relatives  of  the  Author, 

Armenian  Children, 

A  Characteristic  Street  Scene, 

Schoolgirls  in  Armenia 

Teachers  and  Pupils  of  an  Armenian  School, 
A  Turkish  School,  .       .       .       . 

An  Advanced  Moslem  Teacher  and  His  Pupils, 
The  Bazaar  Ue  Doerkler-Alti  in  Constantinople 

A  Turkish  Lady  of  Rank 

A  Moslem  Slave  Girl  of  the  Harem, 
The  Fair  Women  OF  the  Harem, 
Sultan's  Harem  on  the  Bosphorus,    . 

A  Turkish  Young  Lady 

An  Armenian  Merchant  and  Family  in  Marsovan 

An  Armenian  Family 

A  Caravan 

On  the  Road  in  Turkey, 

A  Turkish  Plow  and  Plowman 

Some  OF  THE  Sultans  of  Turkey 

Soldiers  of  the  Old  Military  System— Janizaries, 
Mohammed  H.  within  the  Walls  of  Constantinople, 

Sultan  Abdul-Hamid  U., 

Sultan  Abdul-Aziz 

Gate  of  Imperial  Seraglio  in  Constantinople, 
Imperial  Palace  of  Dolma-Baytche  on  the  Bosphorus, 

Arch  in  Ruins  in  Asia  Minor, 

Theater  in  Ruins,  ; 

Mosques  of  the  Moslem  Founders,  Brusa, 
The  Mosque  of  Ahmet  in  Constantinople, 
The  Moslem  at  Prayer  in  the  Desert, 

Court  of  a  Mosque, . 

The  Mosque  of  Suleyman  in  Constantinople, 

A  Dervish  Beggar, 

Dancing  Dervishes,  ...... 


Turkey 


PAGE 

153 

157 
157 
159 
163 
167 
174 
177 
181 
185 
188 
191 
191 

195 
199 
202 
207 
213 
218 
225 
229 
233 
237 
239 
241 

243 
245 

245 
251 

255 
261 
265 
271 
277 
277 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  xi 

PAGE 

Public  Reading  of  the  Sultan's  Firman  Regarding  the 

Appointment  of  a  Pasha, .287 

A  Vali  and  Suite 291 

A  Turkish  Judge 295 

A  Modern  Turkish  General 301 

A  Turkish  Landlord  of  the  Highest  Type,      .        .       .        .307 

Firemen  and  Fire  Engine  in  Turkey, 309 

A  Hot  Bargain  in  the  Horse  Market 313 

Santa  Sophia  in  Constantinople,       . 321 

Constantinople  and  the  Golden  Horn,    .        .  ■      .        .        .    327 

Nicholas  I.,  Emperor  of  Russia, 329 

Lord  Salisbury,  Prime  Minister  of  Great  Britain,       .        .    349 

Moslem  Cutthroats  in  Armenia, 356 

The  City  of  Marsovan,   • 359 

A  Group  of  Armenian  Huntchagians .365 

Seven  Towers  of  Constantinople, 367 

Moslem  Robbers  Dividing  Spoils 373 

The  Ambassadors  of  the  Great  Powers  at  Constantinople,    383 
The  Late  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone,  the  Great  English 

Friend  of  the  Armenians, 385 

An  Armenian  Massacre 389 

The  Costume  of  a  Turkish  Highwayman 391 


Armenian  Children, 


401 


INTRODUCTORY. 

* 

BV  ' 

RT.    REV.    F.    D.    HUNTINGTON,  LL.    D., 

Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Central  New  York. 


It  is  a  pleasure  for  me  to  place  my  name  among 
those  of  the  friends  of  Mr.  Antranig  Azhderian  in  this 
country.  With  those  who  may  have  but  a  slight 
acquaintance  with  him  there  can  be  no  occasion  for 
any  testimonial  to  his  noble  character,  his  accomplish- 
ments, his  high  aim,  or  his  patriotic  devotion  to  his 
native  land  and  its  institutions. 

The  many  tributes  which  Mr.  Azhderian  has  in  his 
possession  are  so  explicit,  so  emphatic,  so  cordial,  so 
laudatory  in  terms,  and  so  disinterested  in  their  motive, 
that  I  could,  even  apart  from  my  personal  acquaintance 
with  him,  feel  no  hesitation  in  giving  him  both  con- 
fidence and  unqualified  commendation.  These  docu- 
ments are  made  weighty  by  the  character  and  standing 
of  men  whose  signatures  they  bear,  including  interna- 
tional officials,  scholars,  authorities  in  Oriental  litera- 
ture, educators  in  this  country,  Christian  missionaries, 
and  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  They  relate  to  different 
periods  of  Mr.  Azhderian's  life,  his  birth  and  superior 
breeding,  his  social  position  in  the  Orient,  his  habits 
and  studies.     They  bear  striking  testimony  to  his  un- 


xiv  INTRODUCTORY. 

usual  gifts  as  a  public  speaker,  his  judgment  and  taste, 
his  command  of  languages,  his  eloquence  in  oratory. 

Any  introduction  bespeaking  favorable  attention  in 
behalf  of  this  work  would  be  needless  for  those  who 
may  begin  to  read  it.  The  qualities  as  to  which  the 
author  has  been  most  careful  to  make  his  treatise 
strong  and  secure  in  the  face  of  criticism  are  accuracy, 
fairness,  historical  impartiality,  and  intelligent  sym- 
pathy with  the  best  institutions  and  movements  of  our 
time,  in  the  Old  World  and  the  New.  It  would  not  be 
enough  for  a  patriotic  Armenian  to  revere  the  vener- 
able antiquities  and  sacred  traditions  of  his  people,  or 
plead  for  justice  and  mercy  toward  them  on  the  ground 
of  what  they  have  been  and  have  done  in  the  romantic 
past.  He  must,  as  a  son  of  a  robust  and  pure  ances- 
try, desire  to  serve  the  highest  civil  and  intellectual 
moral  interests  of  his  kindred  and  his  nation,  by  send- 
ing back  to  them  the  fruits  of  his  observation  among 
the  free,  republicanj  progressive  communities  of  the 
West.  It  was  this  aspiration,  and  not  an  idle  curiosity, 
that  brought  Mr.  Azhderian  as  an  independent  trav- 
eler, young  but  not  immature,  to  a  close  acquaintance 
with  the  colleges,  political  systems,  industries,  and  re- 
ligion of  the  United  States.  The  presentation  of  his 
purpose  has  naturally  led  him  into  wider  fields  than  he 
at  first  contemplated  entering. 

Such  a  survey,  with  its  attendant  argument  and 
appeal,  could  not  have  been  accomplished  at  any  epoch 
since  the  Christian  era  so  suitable  as  this,  when  the 
struggles  and  tragedies  of  suffering  millions  of  his 
fellow-countrymen  are  uttering  their  cry  to  a  singularly 
regardless  and  unhelpful  Christendom. 


THE  TURK  AND  THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 


THE    LAND    OF    HAIG— ARMENIA. 


"It  would  be  difficult  to  point  out  a  more  delightful,  soul- 
inspiring,  mysteriously  fascinating  country  on  the  surface  of  the 
''  globe  than  Armenia.  .  .  Whithersoever  we  turn  our  steps,  to 
/  the  north,  south,  east,  or  west,  the  ground  we  tread  is  holy.  It 
i^  is  history — stratified." — E.  H.  B.  Lanin,  London,  England. 

TRADITIONS    OF    ANTIQUITY. 

A  RMENIA,  now  for  the  most  part  stibject  to  the 
'^*-  Turkish  Empire,  is  the  fountain-head  of  antiquity. 
She  is  most  ancient  among  the  ancient — a  land  whose 
marvels  excite  the  wonder  of  the  beholder.  Her 
shrines,  rocks,  rivers,  valleys,  and  mountains — silent 
witnesses  of  prehistoric  contentions  and  changing 
fortunes — are  replete  with  memorials  which  date  back 
.  to  the  beginning  of  the  life  and  growth  of  infant 
humanity.  The  murmuring  of  her  soft  breezes  wafts 
to  the  listeninor  ear  the  sweet  strains  which  once  rose 
from  the  terrestial  paradise  to  mingle  with  the 
melodies  of  the  celestial — a  land  where  man  first 
communed   with    his   God ! 

In  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world,  long  before  the 
nations  and  peoples  of  recorded  history  existed  and 
flourished,  the  human  race  had  its  home  in  Armenia. 
Here  was  spoken   a  common   language,  here  was  the 


14         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

origin  of  civil  government  and  monotheistic  religion, 
and  from  here,  when  the  race  grew  and  multiplied,  the 
people  spread  over  all  Asia  and  Europe. 

The  position  of  central  Armenia,  between  the 
Caspian  and  Black  seas,  facilitated  the  immediate 
dispersion  of  the  post-diluvian  people.  Some  writers 
claim  that  the  Hindu-Kush  mountains  were  the  oldest 
home  and  the  distributing  center.  We  contend  that 
geographical  position,  Holy  Writ,  modern  history, 
tradition,  and  scientific  research  unite  in  favoring 
Armenia  as  the  primitive  home  from  which  the  eastern 
and  western  Aryans  originated.  Mt.  Ararat,  where, 
according  to  the  Scriptures,  Noah's  ark  rested,  is  in  the 
central  province  of  Armenia,  although  there  are  some 
still  who  question  whether  the  mountain  of  the  flood, 
is  the  Ararat  of  Armenia,  and  who  would  locate  the 
resting  place  of  the  ark  in  various  other  places,  some 
at  Mount  Meiru  of  India,  some  in  the  Kurdish  Moun- 
tains of  central  Asia. 

Our  traditions  as  to  Noah  are  exceedingly  interest- 
ing. The  name  of  the  village  at  the  entrance  to  the 
glen  on  the  northeast  foot  of  Mount  Ararat  is  Arghuri, 
meaning  "he  planted  the  vine,"  and  here  Noah's  vine- 
yard is  still  pointed  out.  In  1840  a  catastrophe  buried 
the  oldest  village  and  the  vineyard  ;  but  it  is  alleged 
that  a  vine  stock  planted  by  the  patriarch's  hand 
(Gen.  iv.  2)  still  bears  grapes.  Not  far  from  Arghuri, 
is  Manard,  "the  mother  lies  here,"  referring  to  the 
burial  place  of  Noah's  wife.  At  a  little  distance  is  the 
city  of  Eravan,  "visible,"  where  the  legend  is  that 
the  saved  remnant  first  beheld  the  dry  land  when  the 
waters  subsided.      Nearby   is  the   town   of  Nakckvan, 


THE   LAND    OF    HAIG — ARMENIA.  1 5 

"first  habitation,"  indicating  the  primeval  dwelling  of 
men. 

The  simple  and  credulous  Christian  of  Armenia 
implicitly  believes  that  these  traditional  spots  are 
veritable  relics  of  the  diluvian  period.  Mount  Ararat 
is  known  among  us  as  Masszs,  or  "  the  mother  of  the 
world."  It  was  also  held  by  the  ancient  geographers 
that  this  was  the  center  of  the  world.  The  Persian 
traditions  in  regard  to  this  mountain  are  quite  like 
those  of  the  Armenian.  They  call  it  Kuhi-Nuh, 
"the  mountain  of  Noah."  Thus  not  only  have  we 
the  evidence  of  the  Bible,  \y\K  our  traditions  and  the 
testimony  of  the  oldest  ge-  ^raphers  are  in  favor  of 
our  belief  that  Armenia  was  the  center  for  the  disper- 
sion of  the  human  race. 

But  we  may  even  trace  our  country  to  still  earlier 
biblical  periods.  It  was  a  prevailing  view  among  the 
ancient  Latin  and  Greek  interpreters  of  the  Bible, 
that  after  the  flood  the  human  race,  led  by  Noah,  found 
a  safe  home  in  the  very  region  which  had  been  its 
cradle.  Surely  the  Divine  Wisdom  had  a  lesson  to 
teach  erring  man  in  restoring  him  to  the  same  abode 
whence  he  was  once  banished.  And  how  closely, 
again,  does  the  topography  of  Eden,  as  given  in  the 
second  chapter  of  Genesis,  coincide  with  the  natural 
characteristics  of  this  region  to-day!  Notwithstand- 
ing some  obvious  mixture  of  error  in  these  traditions, 
they  doubtless  have  a  basis  in  reality,  and  bear  the 
marks  of  essential  truth.  Streams  of  tradition  flowino- 
from  a  common  source  have  been  transmitted  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  upon  them  some  of  the 
greatest^  events  in  the  history  of  humanity  have  been 


l6         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

inscribed  as  upon  tlie  solid  rock.  One  person,  such  as 
Lamech  the  son  of  Methuselah,  who  lived  from  the 
days  of  Adam  to  those  of  Noah,  would  have  been 
sufficient  to  communicate  the  story  of  antediluvian 
days  to  Eber,  Isaac,  and  Levi,  and  from  these  patri- 
archs the  story  may  easily  have  reached  Moses  liimself. 
May  not  the  Armenians,  then,  who  sprung  from  the 
most  remote  ancestry,  rightfully  suppose  such  a  chain 
among  their  progenitors  as  would  justify  their  histori- 
cal traditions,  especially  in  view  of  the  harmony  of 
these  traditions  with  the  Bible? 

We  find  various  views  as  to  the  location  of  the 
Garden  of  Eden.  The  latest  and  wildest  theory  is  of 
its  location  at  the  North  Pole,  upon  the  assumption 
that  in  the  lapse  of  ages  the  eartii  has  gradually 
cooled  so  that  the  first  suitable  place  for  man  to  live 
was  in  the  Arctic  zone.  Armenia,  however,  has  the 
earliest  and  most  reasonable  of  all  claims.  Our  land 
is  a  natural  center.  The  Tigris,  Euphrates,  and  other 
rivers  of  the  Paradise  of  Eden  still  flow,  and  the 
identity  of  these  streams  alone  should  banish  all  doubt. 
The  very  odors  of  the  forest  are  of  singular  fragrance. 
Here  bloom  indigenous  plants  of  great  variety  and 
hue,  which  refuse  to  lend  their  beauty  and  fragrance  to 
any  foreign  clime,  Num.erous  birds,  too,  of  peculiar 
beauty  adorn  and  enliven  the  enchanting  landscapes. 
Robert  Curzon  gives  us  a  list  of  over  one  hundred 
and  seventy  kinds  of  birds  in  an  Armenian  city, 
enumerating  them  by  their  particular  names  and 
families.  He  says  :  "  I  have  no  power  to  do  them  jus- 
tice. The  number  of  various  kinds  of  birds  which 
breed  on  the  great  plain  is  so  prodigious  as  to  seom 


THE    LAND   OF   HAIG — ARMENIA.  17 

almost  incredible  to  those  who  have  not  seen  them,  as 
I  often  have,  covering  tlie  earth  for  miles  and  miles  so 
completely  that  the  color  of  the  ground  could  not  be 
seen."  Do  not  all  these  natural  and  scenic  character- 
istics, coupled  with  Bible  documents  and  native  tradi- 
tions, bear  evidence  of  these  primitive  ages?  Surely 
the  Armenians  are  justified  in  their  claim  that  the 
beautiful  landscape  which  was  twice  selected  by  the 
Omnipotent  as  the  cradle  of  the  human  race  was  in 
Armenia;  that  here  was  embowered  the  original  Eden, 
and  here  the  ark  rested  after  the  Deluge. 

Armenians  are  thus  ever  proud  of  their  land  of 
fragrant  memories.  But  what  comfort  can  we  obtain 
from  a  home  made  desolate  ?  Paradise  has  been 
transformed  into  a  habitation  of  fallen  humanity,  and 
her  most  enlightened  descendants  have  long  since 
removed  to  tlie  remoter  parts  of  the  world.  Some 
nations  glory  in  their  many  achievements  and  in  their 
monuments  of  antiquity.  Rome,  in  her  universal 
dominion,  in  her  patriotism  and  statescraft ;  Greece,  in 
her  precious  legacy  of  art  and  letters  ;  Egypt,  in  her 
awe-inspiring  ruins  of  ancient  grandeur;  Palestine,  in 
her  lofty  sentiments  of  religious  truths  ;  and  the  glory 
of  Armenia  is  her  prehistoric  legends  and  the  bloom 
of  her  sacred  memories.  But  of  what  value  is  all  this 
past  greatness  in  itself?  The  Holy  Land  has  aban- 
doned her  Christ.  The  dust  of  time  and  modern 
traffic  has  covered  the  exquisite  monuments  of  Greek 
culture.  They  lie  buried  in  ruins,  and  slumber  mute 
and  silent  in  the  eternal  death  whence  there  is  no 
resurrection.  All  roads  no  longer  lead  to  Rome. 
And  the  past  is  as  dead  in   Armenia  as  elsewhere.      It 


•l8  THE   TURK  AND   THE   LAND   OF  HAIG. 

is  the  disposition  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  look  for- 
ward to  the  glories  of  the  future  rather  than  backward 
to  a  glorious  past.  The  soil  enriched  by  the  past 
must  bear  fruit  in  the  present.  And  yet  there  must 
ever  be  an  inspiration  for  the  patriotic  heart  in  lookmg 
back  upon  the  glory  of  his  fatherland  ;  and  as  1  gaze 
upon  the  great  green  hills,  blooming  valleys,  venerable 
mountains,  luxuriant  pastures,  rippling  waters,  the 
banks  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  and  the  slope  of 
Ararat,  the  scene  thrills  my  heart  with  a  deep  pride  for 
my  native  country.  There  our  Armenian  fathers 
bravely  fought  at  the  altar  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  ;  there  many  noble  sons,  valiant  soldiers  of  the 
Cross,  stood  firm  for  centuries  against  the  sword  and 
fire  of  avenging  heathenism.  Armenia,  the  mother  of 
nations,  the  theater  of  human  achievement  and  divine 
providence ! 

The  genius  of  modern  investigation  has  been  devel- 
oped so  far  from  Armenia  that  here  is  left  to-day  the 
richest  and  most  profitable  field  that  can  reward 
scholarship  in  every  department  of  human  knowledge. 
The  geologist  lias  yet  to  trace  the  changes  that  turned 
rivers  from  their  courses  and  have  created  lakes  where 
cities  once  stood.  The  botanist  can  here  add  to  the 
world's  knowledge  of  beautiful  and  useful  plants. 
Here  philology  has  an  ample  field  for  the  acutest  intel- 
lect. The  antiquarian  can  delve  amid  the  ruins  of 
cities  that  were  great  when  Egypt  was  young.  Ere 
Babylon  was  built  the  men  whose  names  these  cities 
bore  were  fireside  heroes  in  the  most  civilized  regions 
of  the  globe. 

Dr.  George  Smith  of  the  British   Museum,  after  an 


THE   LAND    OF   HAIG— ARMENIA.  I9 

extensive  exploration  in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates, 
gathered  tons  of  tablets  covered  with  inscriptions, 
which  he  translated  into  English  and  published,  care- 
fully arranged  and  classified,  in  a  large  volume.  He 
places  in  parallel  columns  the  Bible  text  and  the  text 
of  the  tablets,  showing  their  remarkable  aereement, 
and  proving  that  modern  scientific  research  constantly 
corroborates  the  assertions  of  the  Scriptures.  I  am 
proud  to  think  that  my  native  land  has  been,  and  will 
ever  be,  a  growing  witness  to  the  veracity  of  the 
Mosaic  record.  Should  the  reader  be  disposed  to 
doubt,  let  him  read  Smith's  "Chaldean  Accounts  of 
Genesis  "  or,  indeed,  any  of  the  modern  works  that 
treat  of  the  recent  researches  about  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates — Layard's  "  Nineveh,"  or  Bishop  Newman's 
"Thrones  and  Palaces,"  or  the  "  Records  of  the  Past  " 
published  by  the  authorities  of  the  British  Museum. 

PHYSICAL     CHARACTERISTICS. 

Armenia  is  an  inland  region  of  Western  Asia,  lying 
directly  north  of  the  Mesopotamian  plain,  between  the 
Black  and  Caspian  seas.  Like  all  lands  of  prehistoric 
renown,  it  is  a  small  country,  being  a  little  larger  than 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  Its  geographical  bound- 
aries, though  changed  at  different  periods,  became 
most  extensive  under  the  administration  of  our  kings 
Aram  and  Tigranes  II.,  when  they  reached  to  the 
Caucasus  on  the  north,  to  Asia  Minor  on  the  west,  to 
Mesopotamia  on  the  south,  and  to  the  Caspian  Sea 
and  Media  on  the  east.  In  the  earliest  periods  our 
country  was  divided  into  Armenia  Major  and  Armenia 


20         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Minor.  The  former,  known  as  Armenia  Proper,  was 
divided  into  fifteen  provinces,  the  central  being  the 
district  of  Ararat. 

The  Armenian  highlands  are  the  most  elevated 
reorion  of  western  Asia,  consistino  of  a  succession  of 
rolling  plateaus.  The  mean  altitude  is  from  5000  to 
7000  feet  above  the  sea  level,  culminating  in  Mount 
Ararat,  the  loftiest  peak  in  western  Asia,  which  forms 
the  center  of  the  system,  with  an  elevation  of  17,210 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  or  10,210  feet  above  the 
Plain  of  Araxes.  The  surface  of  the  country  is  broken 
by  upheavals,  and  consists  of  a  series  of  terraces,  deep 
valleys,  mountain  masses,  and  bleak  plateaus ;  while 
here  and  tliere  the  dislocation  of  rocks  and  the  irregu- 
larity of  the  strata  afford  convincing  evidences  of  vol- 
canic eruption. 

From  the  Armenian  plateau  at  the  foot  of  Mount 
Ararat  arise  the  sources  of  the  rivers  of  western  Asia — 
the  Tigris,  the  Euphrates,  the  Aras  or  Araxes,  the 
Cyrus  (Kur),  the  Acampis,  and  the  Halys.  The  first 
two,  with  deep  and  rapid  waters,  flow  southeast  into  the 
Persian  Gulf.  The  Acampis,  supposed  by  some  to  be 
the  Pison  of  the  Bible,  rising  from  the  southwest  of 
Erzrum  and  fed  by  various  streamlets,  sweeps  with  a 
strong  and  smooth  current  toward  the  Black  Sea. 
The  Araxes  (perhaps  the  Gihon  of  the  Bible)  takes 
its  rise  about  thirty  miles  south  of  Erzrum  from  the 
side  of  Bingol,  or  the  "  mountain  of  one  thousand 
lakes,"  winds  through  fertile  regions,  and  mingles  with 
the  Cyrus  ;  and  then  both,  sweeping  northward  and 
again  southward  through  the  plain  of  Moghan,  dis- 
charge eastward  into  the  Caspian  Sea  by  three  mouths, 


THE    LAND   OF    HAIG— ARMENIA.  21 

being  navigable  up  to  the  point  of  junction.  The 
name  of  the  river  is  supposed  to  commemorate  Araxes, 
wliose  son  was  drowned  in  the  rapid  waters.  Xeno- 
phon,  however,  traces  its  derivation  to  Ar-Ax,  or  "  hoiy 
water,"  its  water  being  sacred  to  the  sun.  Thiis  stream 
possessed  different  names  at  different  periods,  com- 
memorative of  various  events.  The  Halys,  or  the 
modern  Kizil-Irmak,  is  the  most  westerly  of  the  rivers. 
It  springs  from  a  verdant  region  at  no  great  distance 
from  the  Euphrates,  and  flows  with  rapid  vohime  into 
the  Black  Sea. 

The   volcanic   soil    of  the   country   is   of  surpassing 
fertility,  and   yields   abundant   crops   of  wheat,  barle)^ 
apricots,  maize,  tobacco,  rice,  and  other  minor  products' 
Here  are  raised  also  the  mulberry,  cotton,  grapes,  and  a 
dye  called   yellow-berry.      Beautiful  vmevards,  smilina 
gardens,  orchards,  and  groves  abound  in  many  parts  o{ 
the  country,  especially  in  the   valleys,  where  luxuriant 
vegetation  gladdens  the  heart  of  the  lover  of  nature. 
Melons,    figs,   granates,  and   trees    of   oak,    pine,   ash, 
walnut,  apple,  peach,  and  chestnut  abound.      Its  natural 
wealth   and   resources  are   greater  than   those  of  any 
other  province  of  Asia  Minor.     There  are  gold  mines 
on    the  line    of   communication    between   E?zrum   and 
Trebizond.      The    river   Acampis,  wliich   "  compasseth 
the  whole  land  of   Havilah   where  there  is  crold."  runs 
through  that   section  of  the  country  now.      The   moun- 
tains abound  in  silver,  copper,  iron,'  lead,  antimony,  sul- 
phur, and  sulphates,  especially  in   the   west  and   amono- 
the  hills  of  the  Euphrates.      The  export  minerals  conf- 
prise    salt    from    Lake    Van,   sulphur,    iron,  and    alum. 
Ihere  are  stones  of  syenite,  jasper,  marble,  granite,  and 


22         THE. TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

porphyry.  Sandstone  and  limestone  are  the  prevaiHng 
geological  formations  of  the  country,  and  out  of  these' 
have  been  quarried  the  materials  for  our  royal  palaces 
and  ecclesiastical  edifices. 

The  climate  is  healthful,  and  varies  according  to  alti- 
tude. The  lonof  winter,  extendinor  from  October  to 
May,  is  severe,  while  .the  summers  are  short  and 
pleasant.  The  air  is  pure  and  delicious  and  the  sky 
clear  and  bright. 

Like  all  mountain  regions,  Armenia  abounds  in 
lakes.  Among  them  Van,  Sevan,  and  Ormi,  or 
Ormuiah,  are  the  most  noteworthy.  All  these  are 
saline  but  Sevan,  which  is  called  the  "  sweet  lake,"  and 
reposes  near  the  city  of  Erevan.  Ormi  lies  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  country,  within  the  territory  of  the 
Shah.  Lake  Van,  on  the  east  of  the  city  bearing  its 
name,  is  by  far  the  largest  and  most  beautiful  in  all 
western  Asia.  Its  triangular  surface  of  14,000  square 
miles,  5000  feet  above  the  sea  level,  is  in  the  very 
center  of  ancient  Armenia  in  a  rich  and  verdant  valley 
surrounded  by  forest-clad  mountains.  Its  romantic 
beauty,  the  sluggish  surge  of  its  deep  blue  waters,  its 
associations  so  famed  in  history  and  fiction,  have  been 
the  inspiration  of  many  a  poet.  The  petrified  lakes  of 
Armenia  are  particularly  interesting,  being  the  result 
of  evaporation.  During  the  warmest  season  of  the  year 
the  water  becomes  crystallized  like  ice  with  deposits  of 
salt  about  an  inch  thick,  which  the  neighboring  people 
gather  in  boats  and  carry  away.  Strangely  enough,  the 
crust  does  not  appear  in  cold  summers. 

Mineral  springs,  both  cold  and  hot,  abound.  In  my 
travels  through   the  country  I  have  seen  many  of  them 


THE    LAND   OF   HAIG — ARMENIA.  23 

gushing  from  the  ground  with  great  force  from  between 
the  strata  of  limestone.  These  hot  springs  are  another 
evidence  of  the  subterranean  activity  of  the  region. 
From  all  over  the  country  people  who  suffer  from  any 
ailment  repair  to  these  waters,  whose  medicinal  proper- 
ties are  of  great  reputation.  Sometimes  the  waters  are 
conducted  to  city  bathing  houses  or  basins  by  means  of 
pipes. 

ARARAT. 

As  has  been  mentioned,  Mount  Ararat  is  the  nucleus 
of  the  river  and  mountain  systems,  standing  high  and 
hoar  midway  between  the  Black  and  the  Caspian  seas. 
It  is  the  center  of  the  world.  It  is  a  mountain 
rich  with  events  of  undying  significance  to  mankind. 
Around  its  base  legends  and  traditions,  true  and  fabii- 
lous,  hold  perpetual  sway.  To-day  it  is  a  mighty 
boundary  stone  of  three  great  empires— the  Turkish, 
Russian,  and  Persian.  It  has  two  summits,  seven  miles 
apart,  the  greater  at  the  northwest  extremity  and  the 
lesser  toward  the  southeast.  The  snow-clad  summit  of 
the  greater  Ararat  is  wrapped  in  clouds  during  most  of 
the  day.  These  float  away  at  nightfall  and  leave  the 
snowy  crown  clear  and  distinct  against  the  starry  sky. 
A  more  rugged  and  awe-inspiring  view  is  obtained  from 
the  northeast  than  from  any  other  point. 

No  one  can  do  Ararat  justice ;  every  turn  crives 
a  new  picture.  It  beauty  is  unrivaled  by  any  other 
mountain  on  earth.  It  is  truly  "  the  sublimest  object 
in  nature."  Its  snow-crowned  peak,  rising  from  the 
plain  of  Araxes,  rears  itself  in  solemn  majesty  above 
the  sea  of  vapor  into   the  regions  of  eternal  winter, 


24 


THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 


perpetually  covered  with  ice  and  snow,  and  ruling  over 
the  clouds  and  the  storms.  It  is  a  picture  of  mingled 
sublimity  and  beauty,  calm,  cold,  majestic. 

One   is    filled   with    awe  as   he   watches  the  mellow 
radiance  of  the  moon,  the  changing  hues  and  shadows 


MOUNT   ARARAT. 


of  the  venerable  mountain,  or  hears  the  thundering 
sound  of  falling  ice  and  rocks  from  its  stupendous 
heights.  The  mass  of  snow  on  its  summit,  14,000  feet 
above  the  sea,  never  dissolves,  and  is  one  of  the  phe- 
nomenal features  of  this  mountain,  exceedino-  in 
quantity  that  of  either  the  Alps  or  the  Caucasus,  as 
the    former    average    9000    feet,   and    the    latter    from 


THE    LAND   OF    HAIG — ARMENIA.  25 

io,cx)0  to  12,000  feet,  in  height.  The  people  consider 
the  ascent  of  Ararat  a  miracle.  They  regard  the 
mountain  with  superstitious  awe,  and  beheve  that  it 
still  contains  the  relics  of  the  ark,  unchanged  by  time 
or  decay,  and  that  in  order  to  insure  their  preservation 
a  divine  decree  has  made  it  inaccessible  to  mortal 
approach.  The  Tartars  and  the  Turks  of  the  neigh- 
borhood imagine  its  summit  to  be  the  abode  of  the 
**  devil  "  and  of  wild  ghosts,  and  they  fear  to  approach 
too  near  its  top.  Morier  himself  declares,  "  No  one 
appears  to  have  reached  the  summit  of  Ararat  since  the 
Flood."  However,  Dr.  Friedrich  Parrot  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Dorpat,  after  several  unsuccessful  attempts, 
finally  gained  the  summit  in  September,  1829.  He  is 
considered  the  first  mortal  since  the  Deluge  who  has 
ever  ventured  amid  the  ice  and  snow  of  the  isolated 
peak. 

The  name  "  Ararat"  is  of  the  remotest  antiquity.  It 
has  been  known  for  3000  years.  We  find  in  the  most 
ancient  annals  of  the  Mosaic  record  of  creation  the 
expression,  "Upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat,"  Moses 
of  Clorene,  the  father  of  our  history,  traces  the  origin 
of  the  word  Ararat  or  Arardki  to  our  Armenian 
patriarch,  Ara  or  Arai,  the  beautiful,  who  lived  eight- 
een centuries  before  Christ,  At  his  fall,  in  a  bloody 
conflict,  tlie  Armenian  plain  was  called  after  him  Arai- 
Arat,  "  the  fall  of  Arai."  Some  others  advance  the 
theory  that  the  word  is  composed  of  Ar  and  Ara/i 
— Ar  (Sanskrit),  the  root  of  Aryan  or  "nobles,"  and 
Arah  (classical  Armenian),  "  plains"  or  "  fields,"  hence 
meaning  "the  plains  of  the  Aryans"  or  "  nobles," 

The  antiquity  of  the  name   Ararat   antedates  by  a 


26         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

few  centuries  even  the  time  of  Moses.  "  An  ancient 
bilingual  tablet  makes  Urdhu  the  equivalent  of  Tilla, 
of  which  the  Accadian  pronunciation  is  given  as  Tilla, 
the  latter,  as  Sir  H.  Rawlinson  long  ago  pointed  out, 
being  probably  a  Semitic  loan  word,  and  meaning  the 
'  highlands.'  Tilla,  the  equivalent  of  Urdhu,  usually 
signifies  the  land  of  Accad  or  northwestern  Babylonia, 
but  since  it  is  not  glossed  in  this  passage  and  stands, 
moreover,  between  Akharrue,  or  Palestine,  and  Kutu 
Kurdistan,  it  would  seem  that  it  is  employed  to  mean 
Armenia.  Urardhu,  therefore,  contracted  into  Urdhu, 
would  have  been  the  designation  of  the  highlands  of 
Armenia  among  the  Babylonians  as  early  as  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries  b.  c."* 

The  term  Ararat  is  used  in  ancient  annals  of  sacred 
and  secular  history  for  the  entire  country  of  Armenia, 
and  not  for  the  mountain  itself.  Anciently  even  the 
inhabitants  were  known  as  the  people  of  Ararat.  It 
was  not  till  late  years  that  the  name  came  to  be  limited 
to  the  mountain  itself.  This  misunderstanding  has 
led  some  to  erroneous  conclusions  and  superstitions. 
Nothine  could  be  more  absurd  to  a  native  of  Armenia 
than  the  idea  that  the  ark  rested  on  the  very  top  of 
Mount  Ararat.  A  well-known  American  traveler,  for 
instance,  after  describing  the  first  impression  of  the 
mountain,  goes  on  to  say  :  "  I  could  not  help  thinking 
what  a  hard  time  the  mighty  line  of  living  things  had 
when  marching  by  twos,  male  and  female,  from  those 
cold,  bleak  heights  down  into  the  plains  below,  after 
the  great  flood  had  subsided,  and  what  a  time  good 
old  Noah  must  have  had  to  keep  some  of  his  warm- 

*"  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  of  Van,"  in  "Journal  R.  A.  S.,"  vol.  xiv.  p.  392. 


THE    LAND   OF   HAIG — ARMENIA.  27 

blooded  pets  from  freezing  on  that  lofty,  sixteen-thou- 
sand-feet-high  pinnacle."  Many  similar  criticisms  have 
been  made  concerning  the  ark  on  Mount  Ararat,  as 
though  that  historic  craft  had  actually  rested  on  its 
very  peak.  Such  absurd  ideas  indicate  a  lack  not  only 
of  knowledge,  but  of  a  proper  and  common-sense 
understanding  of  a  simple  biblical  narrative.  The 
geographical  unit  is  the  mountain  range,  and  with 
the  mountain  ranges  the  study  of  geography  should 
begin.  From  them  a  scientific  nomenclature  can 
most  easily  be  constructed.  How  precise  and  clear  is 
the  statement  of  the  Book  of  Genesis !  "  The  ark  rested 
upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat'' — not  upon  Mount 
Ararat.  There  are  scriptural  references  in  2  Kings 
xix.  2,1 !  Isaiah  xxxvii.  38.  In  these  parallel  passages 
allusion  is  made  to  Adrammelech  and  Sharezer,  who, 
having  assassinated  their  father  Sennacherib,  "escaped 
into  the  land  of  Ararat."  The  prophet  Jeremiah  (in 
Jeremiah  ii.  27),  summoning  the  nations  for  the  over- 
throw of  Babylon,  calls  "  together  against  her  the  king- 
doms of  Ararat,  Minni,  and  Ashchenaz."  Thus  sacred 
and  secular  writers  concur  in  speaking  of  not  only  a 
mountain,  but  of  a  rajige,  a  land,  a  kingdom,  an  army, 
and  a  people  of  "  Ararat."  Does  the  critic  suppose 
that  the  horses  and  mules  of  Ararat  were  reared 
on  the  icebergs  of  an  isolated  peak  ?  They  were 
seen  in  the  markets  of  Syria.  Had  they  wings,  that 
they  could  fly  where  a  donkey  could  not  climb  ? 
An  army  of  Araratians  helped  Cyrus  in  the  over- 
throw of  Babylon.  Did  they  come  on  a  toboggan  slide 
from  the  resfions  of  everlastine  snow  ? 

Moses      of    Chorene's     appellation,     "  Arred "      or 


28         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

"Ayrarad,"  coincides  with  the  Armaniyn  or  Armenia  of 
the  Persian  text,  which  is  frequently  employed  in 
ancient  historical  documents,  denoting  that  the  name 
Ararat  was  identical  with  the  whole  country  of  Armenia. 
St.  Jerome  himself  always  identified  Ararat  with  the 
plain  of  Araxes,  where  the  mountain  reposes. 

Again,  the  window  of  the  ark  is  described  in  Genesis 
as  being  above  ;  so  that  when  "  on  the  first  day  of  the 
tenth  month  the  top  of  the  mountains  came  forth," 
Noah  would  most  naturally  have  been  looking  upward 
to  see  what  was  above  the  ark.  Therefore,  the  extreme 
cone,  the  highest  pinnacle  of  Ararat,  was  not  the  rest- 
ing place  of  the  diluvian  ark,  but  in  all  probability  a 
much  lower  part  of  the  Ararat  range. 

ANCIENT    CITIES. 

In  Armenia  are  many  once  famous  cities,  unknown 
to  Americans  because  the  hand  of  time  has  shorn  them 
of  their  former  splendor  and  many  of  them  are  buried 
beneath  the  accumulations  of  centuries.  The  largest 
of  these  were  situated  on  the  fair  banks  of  the  Tigris, 
comparatively  few  on  the  Euphrates.  Some  cities 
had  their  streets  paved  with  fragments  of  sculpture 
when  Moses  was  with  Piiaraoh  on  the  throne  of  Egypt. 
Some  of  the  walls,  thirty  or  forty  feet  high,  still  remain, 
with  solid  foundations  and  towers  rising  at  regular 
intervals  with  large  arched  gateways. 

Ani,  the  glittering  city  of  gold  and  silver,  was  the 
imperial  pride  of  Armenian  sovereigns,  whose  pearly 
palaces  shone  with  beauty  in  the  dazzling  glare  of  the 
sunlight.       Its  streets  were   clean   and  richly  adorned 


RUINS    OF    ANCIENT    ARMENIAN    MONASTERIES    AND    PALACES, 


30         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

with  decorations  of  nature  and  art.     This  ideal  city  is 
to-day  a  heap  of  colossal  ruins. 

The  venerable  city  of  Van,  anciently  the  city  of 
Semiramis,  embowered  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the 
lake  of  that  name,  commanded  a  view  of  the  wondrous 
citadel  towering  on  a  rugged  rock  with  a  natural 
amphitheater  surrounding  it  and  buried  amid  the 
loveliest  vegetation  and'  vineyards.  Its  cuneiform 
inscriptions  are  famous  in  history,  as  they  have  revealed 
the  secrets  of  the  centuries  to  modern  research. 
Professor  A.  H.  Sayce  of  Oxford,  England,  in  his 
Journal  gives  the  translations  of  these  venerable  inscrip- 
tions along  with  other  Armenian  antiquities. 

Artaxata  was  once  the  capital  of  Armenia,  where 
Kinor  Tiridates  received  his  crown  from  Rome.  After 
seeking  for  years  to  stifle  the  incipient  Church,  he  too 
bowed  before  the  cross  of  Christ  and,  like  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  became  the  ardent  advocate  of  what  he  had 
once  endeavored  to  overthrow. 

The  holy  city  of  Vagharshabad  was  built  by  King 
Erovant,  but  all  its  pomp  and  glory  have  faded  away 
except  the  monastery  of  Etchmiadzin.  This  most 
ancient  Episcopal  seat  of  the  Armenians  still  remains 
as  a  mighty  bulwark,  against  which  the  heathen  can- 
non of  all  ages  have  thundered  in  vain.  This  mother 
church  of  Ararat  contains  a  number  of  holy  relics, 
among  them  the  head  of  the  spear  by  which  the  side  of 
the  Saviour  was  wounded,  and  the  hand  of  St,  Gregory, 
the  founder  of  the  monastery,  who  laid  the  first  stone  in 
the  year  302 — the  hand  that  baptized  King  Tiridates, 
from  whom  he  suffered  unimaginable  persecutions. 
The  traditions  in  this  Episcopal  seat  are  also  rich  in 


THE   LAND    OF   HAIG— ARMENIA.  31 

apostolic  legends.       Of  these    none  is  more    singular 
that  the    reputed  correspondence  of  Christ    with  our 
King  Abgar  of  Edessa.     The  story  is  that  the  mes- 
sengers of  this  sovereign,  having  some  business  transac- 
tion With  the  Roman  nobility  in  Palestine,  heard  of  the 
miracles    of    Jesus  of     Nazareth  and  on  their  return 
related    them  to    their  sovereign,  who  was  convinced 
that  either  Jesus  was  "that  Christ"  or  else  that  God 
had  come  to  dwell  on   earth.     As  the  king  was  suffer- 
ing from  a  serious  disease,  he  sent  a  letter  to  Christ 
with    a    company    of    messengers    imploring    Him    to 
repair  to  his  court  and  graciously  cure  him.     An  artist 
was  also  sent,  so  that  if  the  Lord  should  fail  to  come 
he    might   at    least    have    His  portrait.     The  painter' 
being  at  work  one  day  endeavoring  to  fulfill  the  royal 
commission,  was  observed  by  the  Saviour,  who  passed 
a  handkerchief  over  His  countenance  and  handed  it  to 
the  artist  with  a  perfect  likeness  of  Himself  upon  it 
A    reply    to    the     King's    letter    was  written  by  St 
Thomas,   commending   his  faith  in  an  unseen  Christ 
and  informing  him  that   the  Divine   Master's   mission 
was  more  urgent  elsewhere  than  in  Armenia,  but  that 
after  His  ascension  disciples  would  be  sent  to  enlighten 
the  king's  people  and  relieve  him  of  his  sufferings      It 
has  been  stated  that  a  papyrus  has  been  discovered  in 
an  Egyptian  tomb  containing  the  reputed  letter  of  our 
king. 

Erzrum,  on  the  main  line  of  communication 
between  Persia  and  the  Euxine,  still  survives  as  a 
populous  military  post  and  commercial  e^itrepdt  It 
reposes  in  a  lovely  district  about  one  hundred  miles 
southeast  of  Trebizond.     The  extent  of  its  fortifications 


32         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

was  SO  great  in  Erzrum  that  twenty-two  thousand 
men  were  required  to  defend  it.  In  415  a.  d.  the  city 
was  fortified  by  Antolius  and  became  a  stronghold  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  its  ancient  name,  Karin,  being 
changed  to  Theodosiopolis,  in  honor  of  the  emperor. 
During  the  Middle  Ages,  the  city  was  an  object  of 
jealousy  and  contentions  between  the  Moslems  and 
the  Greeks.  By  those  who  dwell  in  the  vicinity  the 
city  is  thought  to  be  the  very  spot  where  the  garden  of 
Eden  was  located.  They  claim  that  for  many  a 
century  the  flowers  of  Paradise  bloomed  around  the 
source  of  the  Euphrates.  Tradition  says  that  Nature 
herself  was  so  horrified  at  the  sacrilegious  conduct  of  a 
Persian  king  that  she  refused  to  produce  those  rare 
beauties  any  longer,  and  even  changed  the  source  of 
the  river  itself.  Local  accounts  of  Adam's  fall  show 
how  a  frail,  sympathetic  man  will  follow  a  woman  into 
any  kind  of  a  trap.  He  did  not  eat  of  the  fruit,  they 
say,  until  he  saw  the  fatal  effect  on  lovely  Eve.  Then, 
concluding  that  the  Creator  would  have  compassion  if 
He  saw  them  both  in  the  same  sad  plight  and  restore 
them  to  their  former  estate,  he  decided  to  follow  her 
example  ;  reasoning  thus,  he  indulged.  We  know  the 
result !  Restoration  did  not  occur  in  accordance  with 
his  logical  reasoning.  There  was  something  wrong 
with  the  premises.  Logic  was  not  taught,  except 
objectively,  in  his  day.  Who  can  blame  Adam  ? 
"  The  Lord  cursed  the  serpent,  and  Eve  and  I 
were  doomed  between  the  two "  was  the  sad  re- 
frain. 

There    are    also    Armavir,  Ardashed,    Kemak,    and 
other  cities,  whose  past  associations  are  inspiring  to  an 


.  rVAB^krv* 


REMAINS    OF    ARMI'.MAN    ANTIQUITY. 


34  THE   TURK  AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

Armenian,  although  their   present  state  is  little  more 
than  the  shadow  of  their  former  grandeur. 

The  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  have  become,  like 
their  cities,  only  a  name  ;  but  though  conquered  and 
dispersed,  with  their  once  proud  cities  destroyed,  the 
Armenians  still  remain,  and  we  shall  speak  of  their 
past  and  present  in  succeeding  pages. 


THE     CHILDREN     OF      HAIG— THE 
ARMENIANS. 

"The  Armenians  are  the  representatives  of  one  of  the  oldest 
civilized  Christian  races,  and,  beyond  all  doubt,  one  of  the  most 
pacific,  one  of  the  most  industrious,  and  one  of  the  most  intel- 
ligent races  in  the  world." — Gladstone. 

"Their  national  character  is  a  powerful  one,  and  will  exercise 
a  marked  influence  in  determining  the  future  of  the  East." — 
Professor  Henrv  F.  Tozer,  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  England. 

npHE  beginning  of  our  national  history,  like  that  of 
*  all  races  of  antiquity,  is  mingled  with  much  of  myth 
and  legend.  Our  father,  according  to  tradition,  is  To- 
garmah,  the  son  of  Gomer,  who  was  the  son  of  Japheth 
of  the  Scriptures  (Genesis  x.  3).  Some  of  our  his- 
torians allude  to  our  country  as  Askhanzian,  certainly 
derived  from  Askenaz,  the  brother  of  Togarmah  and 
the  son  of  Gomer. 

Our  traditional  history,  according  to  the  accounts  of 
Chorene,  our  national  historian,  dates  back  twenty- 
three  centuries  before  Christ,  when  Haig,  the  son  of 
Togarmah,  began  his  political  career  as  our  first  ruler, 
from  whom  the  appellations  Haigian,  our  national 
name,  and  Hayasdan,  our  country's  name,  are  derived. 
He  was  one  of  the  many  who  were  busily  engaged  on 
the  Plains  of  Shinar  in  the  construction  of  the  Tower 
of  Babel  ;  but  the  insatiable  ambition  of  Belus,  who 
sought  supremacy,  constrained  Haig  to  flee  from 
Babylon  to  the  land  of  Ararat,  where   he  proposed  to 

35 


36  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

plant  his  own  dominion  in  the  vicinity  of  Lake  Van, 
an  enchanting'  land  of  glen  and  valley,  rivers  and  lakes. 
Belus,  the  sovereign  of  Assyria,  sending  messengers  to 
Haig,  commanded  him  to  surrender  his  power  and  re- 
turn to  his  former  subjection.  This  haughty  demand, 
however,  was  promptly  refused,  and  war  was  the  con- 
sequence. 

Belus,  at  the  head  of  a  mighty  army,  marched  to  the 
land  of  Ararat,  and  Haig  met  him  with  his  patriarchal 
force  of  numerous  sons,  grandsons,  and  servants.  It 
was  a  crisis  which  decided  the  future  of  his  posterity. 
There  the  first  Armenian  hero  displayed  his  valor,  and 
our  legendary  songs  still  sing  his  triumphant  praise. 
He  slew  the  Hainitic  giant  with  his  dart,  and  buried 
him  on  the  spot  where  he  fell,  scattering  his  army  in 
great  confusion.  Haig  lived  the  long  life  of  four  hun- 
dred years  with  a  flourishinor  dominion,  and  established 
a  pure  monotheistic  worship  and  a  patriarchal  govern- 
ment. The  first  dynasty  bearing  his  name  had  a  long 
genealogy  of  fifty-nine  kings,  with  the  capital  at 
Armavir,  to  the  north  of  Araxes.  Here  erew  sacred 
forests,  the  rustle  of  whose  leaves  was  held  to  be  the 
voice  of  God  whispering  to  men  of  welfare  and  peace. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  these  so-called  "kings" 
were  nothing  but  hereditary  rulers  who  occupied  the 
position  of  patriarchs. 

Haiof's  son  Armenacf  was  the  next  sovereion.  Some 
suppose  that  Armenia  derived  her  name  from  him. 
His  reign  is  followed  by  a  dim  period  in  the  annals  of 
our  country,  which  mention  a  succession  of  Armenian 
princes  until  Aram,  the  seventh  in  the  dynasty  of 
Haior,  who  came  to  his  father's  throne  about  two  thou- 


TRADITION  AI,    lYiUTK  Air    OF    IIAIG. 


38         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

sand  years  before  Christ.  Aram  was  a  king  of  un- 
usual military  and  executive  attainments.  Contem- 
porary with  the  biblical  patriarchs,  he  so  diffused  his 
reputation  in  the  neighboring  provinces  and  countries, 
through  his  conquests  and  magnetic  power,  that  foreign 
nations  from  his  day  to  this  have  associated  his  name 
with  our  country  and  people  in  the  appellation  of 
Armenia  and  Armenian. 

In  ancient  accounts  Tiglath-Pileser  speaks  of  "the 
mountains  of  Aruma,"  while  the  inscriptions  of  Shal- 
maneser  mention  "  The  royal  city  of  Arrame  of  the 
land  of  Unardhians." 

This  "  Aruma"  of  Tiglath-Pileser  and  "Arrame"  of 
Shalmaneser  coincide  with  the  name  "Aram"  of  the 
Armenian  historians.  Different  spellings  of  the  same 
name  account  for  its  varied  transformations  into 
foreign  languages,  while  they  both  refer  to  the  "  Ar- 
ram  "  of  the  natives,  the  first  referring  to  the  country 
and  the  latter  to  the  sovereign.  The  derivation  Togar- 
mah  is  believed  by  some  scholars  to  be  from  Toka, 
the  Sanskrit  for  "race,"  and  Artnah  oi  the  classical 
Armenian.  Thus  Aram,  Arama,  Arrama,  and  Armah, 
though  differently  spelled  by  different  people,  are  all 
derived  from  Aram,  the  name  of  the  ruler  and  his  prov- 
ince. Anciently  the  country  was  known  as  Aramenia, 
but  it  has  been  contracted  into  Armenia. 

Aram  greatly  extended  the  boundaries  of  his  kingdom 
by  conquering  large  portions  of  Media,  Assyria,  and  the 
eastern  part  of  Asia  Minor.  Nor  did  he  neglect  the 
internal  improvements  of  his  growing  realm.  Among 
the  cities  he  built  Mazaca,  or  the  modern  Caesarea  in 
Cappadocia,  is  a  living  monument  to  his  active  energy. 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG— THE   ARMENIANS.  39 

Ara,   "the    Beautiful,"  who    sat    upon    his    father's 
throne,  embellishes  the  pages  of  Armenian  history  with 
romance  not  unlike  that  of  Cleopatra.     He  must  have 
possessed  excellence  of  character  along  with  his   o-reat 
physical  beauty,  for  the  blending  of  these   two   alone 
forms  the  requisite  of  true   beauty.     And  the  embodi- 
ment of  these  two  qualities  seems  to  have   been  the 
ideal  of  the  fair  Assyrian  queen  Semiramis,  who  in  her 
mfatuated    frenzy   saw  in    Ara  the   fairest  of  mortals 
However,  Ara  refused  to  be  bound  in  marriage  with  an 
idolatrous   ruler,  who  worshiped  not  the  true  God  of 
his  fathers.     She  resolved  to  win  him,  if  not  by  will,  at 
least  by  force  of  arms.     She  advanced  upon  the  forces 
•    of  the  youthful   Armenian  patriarch,  but  the  clash  of 
her  conquering  arms  sounded  his  death  knell,  for  her 
long  coveted  prize  was  first  among  the  slain.  '  As  the 
stricken  king  was  laid  low  at  the  queen's  feet,  she  burst 
into  a  frenzy  of  grief.      In  vain  were  all   endeavors   of 
magic  art  to  bring  him  back  to  life.     The  spot  where 
he  was  buried  in  a  cofifin  of  gold  is  still  pointed  out  as 
Ara  Seiti,  i.  e.,  "  Ara  is  sacrificed." 

After  her  disappointing  adventure  in    the    land  of 
Ara,  the  semi-mythical  queen  chose  the  vernal  banks  of 
Lake  Van  for  her  summer  residence.     On  such  an  im- 
mense scale  were  the  proportions  of  the  building  that 
Its  construction  required  six  hundred  architects  and  one 
thousand  two  hundred  workmen.      She  named  the  city 
after     herself    "  Shamiramaguerd."     In     later    years 
however,  King  Van  of  the    Haigazian   dynasty,  havinc^ 
rebuilt  the  city,  called  it  Van,  which  name   it  bears  to 
the  present  day. 

With  the  death  of  Ara,  our  land   was   umible  to   op- 


40  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

pose  an  effectual  barrier  to  Assyrian  progress  and 
sadly  dwindled  into  oblivion  for  a  period  of  nearly 
three  centuries,  as  a  tributary  province  to  this  alien 
power.  The  rule  of  the  Haigazian  dynasty,  though 
not  altogether  destroyed,  was  reduced  to  utter  insig- 
nificance beneath  the  mighty  hand  of  Assyria.  The 
long  sway  of  Semitic  rule  was  not  without  its  detri- 
mental results  to  our  national  character.  It  supplanted 
the  pure  monotheism  of  our  fathers,  and  substituted  in 
its  stead  the  worship  of  Bel.  With  this  religious 
change,  the  social  aspects,  race,  and  language,  as  a 
natural  result,  bore  the  indelible  impress  of  As- 
syrianism. 

Our  meager  history  of  this  period  is  engraved  in 
cuneiform  characters  on  monuments  distributed 
throughout  the  region.  The  inscriptions  of  both 
Armenian  and  Assyrian  kings  are  vainglorious  and 
self-praising,  a  characteristic  of  the  ancients.  Neither 
were  the  deities  forgotten  in  these  inscriptions. 
Curses  of  the  air-  and  sun-gods  are  commonly  called 
down  on  him  who  should  dare  to  mar  these  monu- 
mental records.  However,  some  of  the  stones  thus 
inscribed  are  now  found  in  the  walls  of  Christian 
churches  with  the  continuity  of  their  records  broken. 
In  some  other  cases  they  are  still  legible.  Though 
religion,  manners,  and  customs  in  the  region  of 
Ararat  during  this  era  were  Assyrian,  and  though 
their  inscriptions  were  cuneiform,  still  the  Armenians 
had  a  language  of  their  own  in  which  they  preserved 
their  identity. 

After  three  hundred  years  of  servitude  Armenia 
once    again  -rose    Phoenix-like    from    its    ashes,   under 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG— THE   ARMENIANS.  41 

Barvir.  who  successfully  raised  the  standard  of  rebellion 
against  Sardanapalus.  From  this  period  our  people 
enjoyed  a   line   of  independent   rulers. 

Dikran  the  Mighty,  or  Tigranes   I., 'was  one  of  the 
most    notable    sovereigns    of    this    dynasty.     He   was 
a    man  of   great  administrative   capacity.     He  united 
firmness    and  courage    with  sound  judment  in  all  his 
deliberations  and    activities.      His  magnetic    influence 
was  not  confined  to  his  own  country,  but  was  felt  far 
and    wide    throughout    the    East.       As    a    friend    and 
colleague    of  Cyrus,   he   aided   him   in   the   overthrow 
of    Babylon    (528    b.  c),    in    fulfillment    of    prophecy 
(Jeremiah    11.   27).      He  instituted    mighty  reforms   in 
public    improvements,     education,     and    morals.      His 
country,    whose    boundaries    were    greatly    extended 
under    his    military    power    and     statecraft,    enjoyed 
unparalleled   prosperity   in   commerce.     An   extension 
of  trade  navigation  on  lakes  and  rivers  was  also  intro- 
duced.     His  deeds  of  prowess  and  his  vigor  truly  mad( 
his    land    a    star   among    nations.      Vahakn.   who    suc- 
ceeded  his   father   Dikran,   was   so    renowned   for   his 
physical  strength  and  matchless  daring  that,  after  his 
death,   his    people,    who    were    fast    lapsing'  into    the 
heathenism    of    contemporary    nations,    worshiped   his 
monument.     Vahe.    the    last    king    of    the    Haigazian 
dynasty,    in     his    efforts    to    aid    Darius    against    the 
invasions  of  Alexander  the  Great,  fell  with  the  Persian 
king  before  the  long   spears,  splendid   discipline,  and 
unquestioned  bravery    of    the    Macedonian    phalanxes 
in  328  B.  c.      Having   existed    1922   years,  thus  ended 
the  first  and  the  longest  of  tlie  Armenian  dynasties 


e 


42  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND    OF   HAIG. 

ARSACID    DYNASTY.        1 49    B.    C.-428    A.    D. 

This  dynasty,  beginning  about  a  century  and  a  half 
before  Christ,  fills  by  far  the  most  eventful  and 
brilliant  centuries  in  the  annals  of  Armenian  history. 
Havinof  emerg-ed  from  the  hovering-  mists  and  clouds 
of  the  Haigazian  legends,  here  we  are  brought  into 
closer  proximity  to  the  star  of  authentic  history. 
Classical  names  of  deathless  renown  shine  out  with 
brilliant  radiance.  It  is  during  this  dynasty  that  we 
look  upon  the  Son  of  Man,  the  Saviour  of  the  race,  to 
whom  our  country  and  nation  open  their  hearts  and 
homes.  It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note  that  through  a 
multitude  of  fortunes  of  war,  conflicting  armies,  incur- 
sions, and  national  calamities  far  beyond  those  of 
former  years,  our  fathers  through  faith  in  Christ  have 
remained  a  national  unit.  It  should  not  be  supposed 
that  during  the  interval  between  the  Haigazian  and 
Arsacid  dynasties  our  people  were  in  utter  servitude, 
as  they  are  to-day  under  Turkish  despotism.  Our 
country  was  simply  in  a  state  of  ignominious  vassalage 
under  governors  of  the  Macedonian  Empire  ;  for  we 
find  in  317  b.  c,  after  the  death  of  Alexander,  Armenia, 
under  the  leadership  of  Ardvates,  struck  a  blow  for 
freedom,  and   thus   regained  her  independence. 

Upon  his  death,  after  thirty-three  years  of  great 
prosperity,  Ardvates  left  no  competent  successor  to 
resist  foreign  aggressions.  Thus  Armenia  submitted 
to  the  Seleucus  of  Syria,  who  reduced  the  country  to 
a  tributary  state.  For  a  hundred  years  in  vain  the 
Armenians  revolted  and  struggled  under  the  firm  grasp 
of   Syrian    satraps.     About    210    b.  c.    Antiochus   the 


LEGENDARY    HEROES   OF   ARMENIA. 


44  THE   TURK   AND    THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

Great  divided  the  country  into  Eastern  and  Western 
Armenia,  or  Armenia  Major  and  Lesser  Armenia — 
the  former  east  of  the  river  Euphrates  and  the  latter 
west  of  it.  Having  thus  divided  the  country  he 
appointed  a  separate  governor  over  each.  But  no 
sooner  had  Antiochus  sustained  a  crushing  defeat  by 
the  Romans  than  Artaxias  proclaimed  Armenia  Major 
independent,  and  offered  it  as  an  asylum  to  Hannibal, 
the  greatest  strategist  of  all  times,  who  had  sworn  to 
his  father,  when  a  boy  of  twelve  years,  "  eternal  enmity 
to  Rome,"  and  for  forty  years  had  kept  the  field  against 
the  imperial  eagles.  It  must  have  required  courage 
of  the  highest  order  in  Artaxias  to  harbor  the  greatest 
enemy  of  Rome  at  his  court.  Lesser  Armenia  soon 
followed  the  example  of  the  Greater  and  successfully 
revolted  under  Zadriades,  whose  descendants  kept  the 
throne  for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  until  the  time  of 
Tigranes  H.,  when  it  became  a  part  of  Armenia  Major. 
Scarcely  had  Armenia  Major  been  free  half  a  cen- 
tury when  the  Parthian  king,  Mithridates  I.,  having 
vanquished  Syria,  extended  his  mighty  hand  upon  the 
Armenian  affairs,  and  placed  his  brother,  Valarsaces, 
on  the  throne.  Under  his  rule  the  country  flourished, 
laws  were  established,  personal  merit  among  his  sub- 
jects was  rewarded,  and  great  cities  were  founded. 
His  wise  policy  laid  a  good  foundation  for  the  great 
Arsacid  family.  In  94  b.  c.  Tigranes  II.  took  the 
reins  of  the  government  with  such  firmness  and  ability 
that  his  eminence  caused  wonder  and  dread  to  all 
neiorhborinor  nations.  Possessed  with  martial  couracre, 
he  entered  upon  a  career  of  mighty  conquest.  After 
uniting  Lesser  Armenia  with  Armenia  Major,  he  made 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG — THE   ARMENIANS.  45 

himself  master  of  Syria ;  he  brought  to  his  subjec- 
tion many  provinces  of  the  Parthian  Empire ;  he 
conquered  Media  and  annexed  Mesopotamia.  It  was 
during  his  early  sway  that  our  country  reached  its 
meridian  of  power  and  popularity.  It  would,  no  doubt, 
have  been  destined  to  still  brighter  prospects  had  it  not 
been  for  the  unwise  promptings  of  his  father-in-law, 
Mithridates  of  Pontus,  who  led  him  into  a  disastrous 
conflict  with  the  conquering  legions  of  Pompey. 
Great  Tigranes,  under  whose  victorious  tramp  Eastern 
thrones  had  once  shaken  to  their  foundations,  had  to 
bow  in  humble  submission  and  surrender  to  Rome, 
with  pledges  of  allegiance  and  tribute-paying.  In 
turn,  a  compromise  was  effected  by  the  terms  of  which 
the  provinces  of  Sophene  and  Gordyene  were  made 
into  a  separate  kingdom  for  his  son,  while  he  himself 
was  permitted  to  retain  the  remainder  of  his  lost  king- 
dom as  a  loyal  Roman  governor,  in  which  capacity, 
with  his  martial  ardor  tamed  by  misery,  he  acted  until 
the  time  of  his  death,  55  b.  c,  when  another  son, 
Artavasdes,  taking  the  lead  of  the  government, 
resolved  to  bring  back  to  Armenia  the  brighter  days 
of  his  father's  early  career.  In  his  idea  to  successfully 
accomplish  the  cherished  end,  he  denied  obligation 
and  governmental  allegiance  to  Rome.  Meanwhile. 
Rome  and  Parthia,  in  their  contentions  for  Oriental 
empire,  were  alternately  irresistible  in  the  East.  For 
Artavasdes  neutrality  with  these  powers  was  impos- 
sible ;  hence  his  perfidy  and  independent  policy  of 
single-handed  government  was  both  imprudent  and 
detrimental.  The  Armenians  looked  to  Parthia  as 
their  ally,   while   the   events  of   history  prove  that   it 


46  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND    OF   HAIG. 

would  have  been  wiser  to  follow  the  policy  of  Great 
Tigranes  II.  and  remain  loyal  to  Rome.  In  the 
subsequent  conquest,  Mark  Antony,  having  seized 
Artavasdes,  occupied  the  country,  while  the  unfortu- 
nate Armenian  prince  was  carried  to  Alexandria  and 
there  beheaded  by  Cleopatra  in  the  year  30  b.  c. 

In  the  same  year  of  this  event  Artaxes  II.,  the  son  of 
Mark  Antony's  victim,  aided  by  Parthians,  in  a  suc- 
cessful rebellion  massacred  all  the  Romans  found  in 
Armenia.  This  event  was  followed  by  a  long  period  of 
anarchy,  which  is  one  of  the  darkest  pages  in  our  his- 
tory. Poor  Armenia  was  between  two  millstones, 
Rome  on  the  west  and  Parthia  on  the  east.  The  latter 
was  desperate  in  the  throes  of  declining  power,  with 
Persia  crowding  hard  for  supremacy  in  the  region  of 
Ararat.  These  rival  powers,  in  their  bloody  duel 
for  the  mastery  of  our  country,  wrought  their  worst 
upon  our  people.  Both  set  their  own  rulers  in  our 
land,  separately  and  alternately  as  the  wave  of  their 
strength  permitted  them.  Nor  was  our  land  free  from 
broils  within  its  own  borders.  Over  one  hundred  and 
seventy  of  our  nobles  broke  through  the  restraints  of 
monarchy,  set  up  claims  to  principalities,  and  many  of 
them  erected  independent  governments,  each  reigning 
supreme  in  his  own  district  as  a  petty  king.  While 
liberty  thus  grappled  with  tyranny  for  existence,  in  their 
helplessness  our  people  did  not  know  where  to  turn. 
They  had  no  friendly  harbor  in  which  to  refit ;  they  rode 
out  of  one  storm  only  to  enter  another  more  violent. 
In  the  midst  of  such  foreign  contentions  and  feudal 
anarchy,  a  strong  and  daring  usurper,  Erovant  by  name, 
with  legal  claims  to  the  throne  on  the  female  line  of  sue- 


THE   CHILDREN    OF   HAIG — THE   ARMENIANS.  47 

cession,  became  a  sort  of  king,  58  a.  d.,  and  kept  in  power 
until  his  overthrow  by  Ardashes,  closer  to  the  direct 
Arsacid  line.  In  spite  of  Roman  and  Parthian  inter- 
ference with  his  right  to  the  throne,  he  earnestly  en- 
deavored to  better  the  condition  of  his  people. 

About  two  centuries  of  comparative  peace  gleamed 
over  our  unhappy  land.  Before  the  next  tragic  adver- 
sities had  clouded  Armenia's  ever-changing  skies,  the 
great  and  serene  Prophet  of  Nazareth  had  been  born,  to 
build  upon  earth  the  eternal  foundations  of  a  new  king- 
dom that  was  destined  to  tower  above  the  ages,  the 
only  example  in  human  history  which  has  given  itself 
all-conqueringly  to  the  principle  of  divine  love,  teach- 
ing men  universal  fraternity  under  a  spiritual  kingdom 
of  a  common  Father.  What  a  sense  of  mingled  pride 
and  thankfulness  fills  the  heart  of  an  Armenian  at  the 
happy  thought  that  his  fathers  were  the  first  among  all 
nations  to  welcome  Christ's  kingdom,  and  that  their 
posterity  would  be  the  last  to  furnish  martyrs  for  her 
sake ! 

As  to  the  authority  of  our  king  Abgar's  reputed  cor- 
respondence with  Christ,  and  his  subsequent  conversion 
to  Christ's  religion,  we  may  not  wholly  subscribe  ;  for 
at  this  point  history  and  fable,  poetry  and  legend,  hold 
eternal  and  indisputable  carnival.  Yet,  as  we  advance 
from  the  possible  twilight  of  tradition  and  fable  to  the 
broad  daylight  of  history,  we  find  our  king  Tiridates 
and  his  people  receiving  Christian  baptism  in  276  a.  d., 
thirty-seven  years  before  Constantine  ventured  to  issue 
even  the  Edict  of  Toleration. 

Ever  since  that  time  our  religious  life  has  been  linked 
with  the  Church  of  the  Crucified,  and  our  martyr-roll 


48         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

has  grown  with  every  century  ;  for  with  the  introduc. 
tion  of  Christianity  among  our  people,  there  was  added 
to  poHtical  ambition  of  contending  pagan  powers  a 
fierce  religious  hatred,  whose  flames  of  persecution  have 
not  yet  been  extinguished. 

Let  us  return  to  our  chronicle.  Early  in  the  second 
century  a.  d.  under  Trajan,  and  later  under  his  suc- 
cessor Hadrian,  our  land  was  in  a  state  of  relative 
tranquillity,  yet  in  the  course  of  another  century 
Armenia  became  once  more  the  theater  of  almost  unin- 
terrupted combat  between  Persia  and  Rome.  The 
origin  of  the  struggle  was  Arsacid's  deposition  from 
the  Persian  throne  by  the  Sassanid  Artaxerxes  (Arde- 
shir).  Our  king  Chosroes  the  Great,  in  due  sense  of 
justice  took  up  arms  in  defense  of  Persia's  cause,  in 
retaining  the  Arsacids  in  power.  In  the  subsequent 
struggle  he  maintained  the  contest  with  such  an 
indomitable  courage  and  success  that  the  Sassanid 
usurper,  utterly  incapable  of  exertion  in  open  battle, 
resorted  to  treacherous  methods  in  inducing  Anag,  one 
of  his  emissaries,  to  secretly  assassinate  his  valiant 
adversary.  Anag,  in  the  guise  of  a  fugitive  from  the 
neighboring  court,  entered  Armenia,  was  welcomed  by 
our  king  to  the  royal  city  of  Vagharshabad,  where  he 
stabbed  Chosroes  to  the  heart.  His  crime  was  punished 
by  Heaven,  for  while  on  his  flight  from  threatened  ven- 
geance, he  was  drowned  in  the  river  Aras,  and  his  entire 
family  was  at  once  butchered  by  the  soldiery.  Immedi- 
ately upon  this  event  Artaxerxes  entered  Armenia  and 
massacred  all  the  members  of  Chosroes'  family  save  an 
infant,  Tiridates,  who  was  secretly  conveyed  to  the 
Roman  court,  where  the  child-prince  was  educated  under 


KINGS    OF    ANCIENT    ARMENIA     AND    THE    CONVERSION    AND    BAPTISM    OF    KING    TIRIDATES. 


50         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

the  faithful  guardianship  of  the  emperors.  He  cer- 
tainly derived  from  supposed  misfortunes,  as  Gibbon 
has  said,  "such  advantages  as  he  could  never  have 
obtained  on  the  throne  of  Armenia — the  early  knowl- 
edge of  adversity,  of  mankind,  and  of  the  Roman 
discipline." 

Valerian,  in  his  struggle  against  Sapor,  championing 
the  cause  of  Armenia,  sustained  much  loss  to  himself 
and  accomplished  nothing  for  his  ally. 

Finally  the  emperor  Diocletian,  with  better  success, 
restored  the  throne  to  Tiridates,  who  was  at  full  man- 
hood of  nearly  fifty  years  of  age.  In  due  recognition 
the  new  king  made  an  alliance  of  loyalty  to  Rome, 
taking  upon  himself  the  obligation  of  Tigranes  the 
Great,  which  was  broken  by  Tigranes'  son  to  the  sad  un- 
doing of  Armenia  for  three  hundred  years.  Upon  his 
accession,  he  enjoyed  the  good  will  and  the  inestimable 
support  of  both  nobles  and  populace.  Surrounded 
with  such  favorable  auspices,  his  military  genius  had 
full  scope  for  action.  He  vanquished  Assyria  and 
drove  away  all  foes  from  the  borders  of  his  land.  As 
romantic  as  fiction  is  the  reign  of  this  able  ruler.  In 
the  first  acts  of  his  reign  he  persecuted  the  Christians 
with  fiery  intolerance,  verily  believing,  like  Paul,  that  he 
was  right  in  so  doing.  Gregory,  the  saint  of  Armenia, 
reared  in  the  Christian  faith  from  childhood,  preached 
the  gospel  in  his  native  land  ;  but  the  king  imprisoned 
him  for  fifteen  years  in  a  pit.  The  light  of  truth  could 
not  be  imprisoned,  and,  beginning  with  the  king  himself 
and  the  nobles,  it  soon  won  the  hearts  of  nearly  all  the 
people.  The  eventful  reign  of  Tiridates  lasted  nearly 
half  a  century.      His  brave  stand  against  adversaries, 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG — THE   ARMENIANS.  5 1 

his  heroic  courage  in  battle,  power  of  conviction,  firm- 
ness of  character,  and  keen  sense  of  justice — all  unite 
in  making  him  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  beloved  of 
our  rulers. 

The  true  greatness  of  the  father  was  not  inherited  by 
the  son,  Chosroes  II.,  under  whose  incompetent,  weak, 
and  unprincipled  administration  calamities  and  dis- 
asters cursed  our  unhappy  land  and  people.  Provinces 
which  the  valor  of  his  father  had  annexed  to  Armenia 
he  failed  to  firmly  retain.  Nor  is  this  all ;  he  himself, 
debauched  and  utterly  void  of  religious  sense,  readily 
yielded  to  the  polytheistic  agitation  of  Persia  in  the 
persecution  of  his  Christian  subjects  ;  and  thus  breaking 
the  double  ties  of  policy  and  religion  by  which  Armenia 
was  bound  to  Rome,  he  went  on  the  Persian  side,  and 
with  a  degrading  humiliation  he  acceded  to  almost 
every  ignominious  demand  of  Sapor.  Meanwhile  Rome 
and  Persia  with  redoubled  vigor  renewed  their  rival 
contentions,  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Armenian  king  and 
kingdom.  While  with  melancholy  interest  we  gaze 
upon  the  fair  valleys  and  plains  of  Haig  thus  bathed  in 
blood,  with  Armenia's  sun  fast  sinking  in  thickest  dark- 
ness, let  it  be  remembered  that  the  most  efficient  cause 
of  such  a  threatening  result  was  not  altogether  to  be 
found  in  foreign  despotisms,  but  in  internal  strifes  and 
insubordination.  Pagan  Armenians,  with  a  firm  stand 
against  incipient  Christianity,  united  their  arms  with 
the  Persian  forces  in  ravaging  their  own  country  and 
fighting  their  own  nation.  Traitors  were  common,  even 
among  the  princes.  On  the  other  hand,  some 
Armenian  nobles,  without  religious  affinity  either  to 
Christ  or  Zoroaster,  were  clamoring  for  their  own  feudal 


52         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

independence.  Such  shameful  lack  of  unity  on  the 
part  of  the  natives,  I  dare  afifirm,  was  the  chief  cause  of 
the  disintegration  and  partition  of  their  own  fatherland. 

Upon  the  death  of  Sapor  in  379  there  was  an  entire 
change  in  the  Persian  policy  toward  Rome,  and  at  the 
accession  of  Bahram  IV.  in  390  a.  d.,  by  a  treaty 
Theodosius  the  Great  ceded  the  eastern  part,  hence 
called  Pers-Armenia,  to  Persia;  while  the  western  part 
was  annexed  to  the  Roman  empire.  Upon  this  final 
disruption  of  Armenia,  to  conciliate  the  people 
Arsaces  IV.,  then  the  reigning  king,  was  made  a  gov- 
ernor in  the  name  of  the  Roman  emperor  ;  while  the 
Persian  monarch  appointed  Chosroes,  a  descendant  of 
another  branch  of  the  Arsacids,  governor  of  the 
eastern  part.  At  length,  in  428  a.  d.,  upon  Bahram 
V.'s,  substitution  of  Persian  Ma7'zbaiis,  i.  e.,  governor, 
with  Ardashes  IV.,  the  Arsacid  sway  of  580  years  was 
brought  to  an  end  forever.  Though  the  Persians 
were  untiring  in  their  efforts  to  subvert  Christianity, 
their  supremacy  over  Armenia  was  marked  by  san- 
guinary but  unsuccessful  attempts  to  overthrow  its 
firmly  established  and  all-conquering  power. 

In  the  year  450  a.  d.  was  the  most  notable  of 
Armenia's  contests  for  religious  freedom  against  the 
fire-worshipers  of  Persia.  It  was  led  by  Prince 
Vartan  Mamioronian,  the  mig-htv  defender  of  the  faith. 
This  battle  was  preceded  by  the  massacre  of  our 
bishops  and  priests,  whose  very  blood  inspired  the 
Armenians  to  almost  superhuman  deeds  of  valor  on 
the  battlefield.  So  crreat  was  the  slauahter  of  the 
Persians  that  a  compromise,  granting  our  fathers 
religious  liberty,  was  effected.      The  despotic  monarchs 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG— THE   ARMENIANS.  53 

of  Persia  kept  a  figurehead  over  our  doomed  country 
till  the  year  632,  when  Mohammedanism,  which  had 
begun  to  be  a  power  in  western  Asia,  was  destined  to 
send  its  first  caliphs  upon  Armenia  with  fire  and 
sword.  For  two  hundred  years  emperors  of  Constan- 
tinople and  Arab  caliphs  engaged  in  a  long  and  fierce 
struggle  for  the  mastery  of  our  land,  and  with  every 
rotation  of  fortune's  wheel,  as  the  Cross  and  the 
Crescent  exchanged  the  coveted  victory,  our  ill-starred 
land  was  bathed  in  blood.  At-  length,  Moslem  arms 
having  proved  victorious,  the  caliphate  gained  control 
of  the  entire  province  and  governed  it  by  prefects. 

Before  entering  upon  the  few  events  of  the  next 
dynasty — so  little  in  autonomy  and  so  brief  in  duration 
— let  me  further  make  a  cursory  mention  of  the  exist- 
ing state  of  our  people  in  the  long  interregnum. 

In  Pers-Armenia,  with  the  advent  of  Islam's  conquests 
in  the  East,  the  Persians  were  brought  to  their  lowest 
ebb  ;  notably  since  the  decisive  battle  of  Nehavend  in 
640-42,  having  sustained  a  crushing  blow  at  the  hands 
of  Caliph  Omar,  they  could  no  longer  sustain  the 
same  extreme  antipathy  and  dread  with  which  our 
people  had  long  regarded  them.  Yet  such  an  ex- 
change of  oppressors,  from  Zoroaster  to  Mohammed, 
should  not  be  considered  in  the  least  an  improvement  ; 
they  were  both  in  origin  and  environment  the  natural 
product  of  the  darkest  ages  of  Asiatic  barbarism, 
malicious,  cruel,  and  savage.  For  our  ancestors  such 
a  change  of  persecutors  was  of  no  more  significance 
than  that  of  an  ill-fated  soul's  transfer  from  the  paws 
of  Satan  into  the  clutches  of  the  devil.  Internally,  I 
deplore  beyond  words  to  say  that  our  people  were  not 


54         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

yet  at  liberty  from  the  chronic  state  of  rivalry  and  dis- 
sensions. On  one  side  the  turbulent  princes  with 
their  feudal  anarchy,  on  the  other  the  great  mass  of 
the  populace  in  their  constant  strife  and  disunion, 
made  confusion  worse  confounded. 

Here  I  take  occasion  to  say  that  all  through  our 
history  our  hereditary  and  fundamental  weakness  has 
been,  in  spite  of  race  tenacity  evidenced  in  our  loyalty 
to  our  faith,  laneuasre,  and  home,  a  lack  of  coherence 
and  a  mutual  jealousy,  which,  with  much  regret  I  say, 
have  proved  far  more  humiliating  to  Armenians  than 
any  external  disaster. 

Turning  to  the  Byzantine  side,  we  find  the  fortunes 
of  our  people  by  far  in  a  more  encouraging  state. 
Bound  with  ties  of  one  common  religious  sentiment, 
though  not  always  by  common  doctrinal  belief  and 
ceremonies,  our  fathers  united  their  martial  ardor  with 
the  Greeks  aeainst  the  mutual  enemy  of  their  faith. 
That  the  Byzantines  were  anxious  for  such  a  union 
had  been  demonstrated  almost  at  the  start  of  the 
Saracen  power  in  western  Asia.  When,  in  638,  the 
first  Mohammedan  invasion  had  threatened  the  Daron 
province,  our  people,  in  their  weakened  condition,  of 
course  could  ill  afford  to  make  a  stand  against  these 
fierce  warriors  of  the  desert,  and  so  they  were  about 
to  make  a  compromise  with  the  Saracens,  by  the  terms 
of  which  they  were  to  enjoy  the  Christian  religion 
unmolested.  The  Greek  coreligionists,  how^ever, 
greatly  agitated,  threatened  arms  against  our  people, 
as  the  penalty  for  affiliation  with  Islam  on  any  terms. 
War  was  averted  only  by  most  solemn  pledges  of 
fidelity  to  and  co-operation  with  the  Greeks.      In  the 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG — THE   ARMENIANS.  55 

Byzantine  Empire  our  ancestors  were  not  only  an  indis- 
pensable factor  in  civil  and  military  service,  but  they 
were  truly  for  over  two  hundred  years  the  foundation 
of  the  empire.  During  this  long  period  the  throne  of 
Byzantine  was  not  Hellenic  but  Armenian.  It  was 
Armenians  who  wielded  the  scepter  and  Armenians 
who  led  the  army  ;  the  princes,  statesmen,  generals, 
the  very  backbone  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  were 
Armenians. 

My  assertions  are  corroborated  by  George  Finlay, 
the  famous  author  of  "  Greece  under  Foreign  Domi- 
nations," who    says : 

At  the  accession  of  Leo  III.  (717),  the  Hellenic  race  occu- 
pied a  very  subordinate  position  in  the  empire.  The  predominant 
influence  in  the  political  administration  was  in  the  hands  of 
Asiatics,  and  particularly  of  Armenians,  who  filled  the  highest 
military  commands.  Of  the  numerous  rebels  who  assumed  the 
title  of  emperor,  the  greater  part  were  Armenians.  Artabasdos, 
who  rebelled  against  his  brother,  Constantine  V.,  was  an 
Armenian.  Alexios  Mousel,  strangled  by  order  of  Constantine 
VI.,  in  the  year  790;  Bardan,  called  the  Turk,  who  rebelled 
against  Nicephorus  I.  ;  Arsaber  (Arshavir),  the  father-in-law  of 
Leo  v.,  convicted  of  treason  in  808;  and  Thomas,  who  revolted 
against  Michael  II.,  were  all  Asiatics  and  most  of  them 
Armenians.  Many  of  the  Armenians  in  the  Byzantine  Empire 
belong  to  the  oldest  and  most  illustrious  families  in  the  Christian 
world;  and  their  connection  with  the  remains  of  Roman  society 
at  Constantinople,  in  which  the  pride  of  birth  was  cherished,  was 
a  proof  that  Asiatic  influence  had  eclipsed  Roman  and  Greek  in 
the  government  of  the  empire. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  herewith  that  even  some 
of  the  houses  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  were  founded 
and  ruled  over  in  almost  unbroken  line  by  our  an- 
cestors. 


56  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

We  must  now  turn  to  the  fortunes  of  the  third 
Armenian  dynasty. 

PAGRADID    DYNASTY.        743-IO79. 

In  743  A.  D.,  a  hundred  years  after  the  famous  battle 
of  Nehavend,  in  the  midst  of  ephemeral  dynasties,  rag- 
ing wars,  and  dissensions  in  Armenia,  we  find  a  prince 
of  an  old  and  powerful  family  of  Pagrad,  by  the  name 
of  Ashod,  who,  having  gathered  sufificient  strength, 
had  exercised  controllino-  influence  over  central  and 
northern  Armenia.  As  to  the  origin  and  extent  of  his 
power  we  cannot  speak  with  any  degree  of  accuracy. 
We  know,  however,  from  the  evidence  of  history,  that 
he  founded  the  basis  of  a  sufficiently  strong  dynasty, 
the  independence  of  which  was  properly  recognized  in 
88^  by  the  caliphs  under  the  brave  championship  of 
Ashod  I. 

In  the  regular  line  of  succession  :  Ashod  II.,  the 
"  Iron  "  ;  his  brother  and  successor,  Appas  ;  and  Ashod 
III.,  the  Merciful,  were  all  competent  and  brave  lead- 
ers, whose  prowess  drove  the  invaders  of  Armenia  to  a 
respectable  distance  and  whose  sagacity  filled  the  land 
with  fortified  places.  Opulence  and  martial  glory  and 
brighter  days  of  former  prosperity  seemed  to  have  re- 
turned under  such  exploits,  which  were  above  the  level 
of  their  contemporaries,  yet  the  chain  of  powerful  rulers 
seems  to  break  somewhere  in  the  line  of  succession,  for 
royal  fathers  seldom  breed  royal  sons..  Such  was  the 
case  of  Simpad,  the  son  of  Ashod  III.,  who  possessed 
none  of  the  brilliant  qualities  of  his  fathers  ;  in  fact,  he 
had  a  temper  and  disposition  directly  opposite  to  that 
of  his  fathers.      He  was  incompetent,  cruel,  and  corrupt 


^^^fet&u 


COAT   OF    ARMS    AND    FLAGS    OF    ANCIENT    ARMENIA. 


58         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

in  the  extreme  ;  yet  if  exquisite  taste  of  regal  pomp  and 
beauty  should  be  considered  a  redeeming-  feature  in 
such  a  depraved  character,  he  did  possess  it  in  a  most 
extravagant  measure.  His  royal  capitol  on  the  north 
of  Mt.  Ararat ;  the  city  of  Ani,  with  its  palaces,  castles, 
towers,  and  looi  churches,  whose  ruins  cope  to-day 
with  the  antiquities  of  Babylon  in  their  grandeur,  bear 
adequate  testimony  to  this  trait  of  his  character. 

Without  attempting  a  detailed  account  of  events  of 
the  short  line  of  the  Pagradids,  we  deem  it  sufficient  to 
state  that  Byzantine  folly  and  weakness,  aided  by  inter- 
nal disruption  of  nobles,  caused  the  eventual  ruin  of  the 
dynasty. 

The  name  of  Emperor  Constantine  Monomachos 
stands  black  in  the  history  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  His 
utter  worthlessness  as  a  statesman  and  as  a  man  of 
sense  of  responsibility,  his  debauched  indulgence  in 
selfish  and  short-sighted  gratifications,  did  not  simply 
cause  Armenia's  destruction,  but  opened  Asia  Minor 
to  the  Turks,  which  was  the  first  step  to  Islam's  subse- 
quent supremacy  over  the  Christians  of  the  East,  and 
to  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  in  1453. 
This  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  criminal  impru- 
dence of  his  folly.  The  frontiers  of  Iberian,  Armenian, 
and  Syrian  provinces  were  exempted  from  tributary 
taxation  in  consideration  of  maintainlno-  forces  in  de- 
fense  of  the  internal  territories  and  in  protection  of  the 
central  government  itself.  Monomachos,  discarding 
the  wise  policy  in  vogue,  ordered  the  military  opera- 
tions to  cease,  and  that  taxes  be  collected.  Such  an 
imbecile  act  at  once  threw  the  southeastern  frontier 
wide  open  to  the  torrents  of  Moslem  invaders.      Nor  is 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG — THE   ARMENIANS.  59 

this  the  whole  account  of  his  folly.  With  unquenchable 
greed  of  more  taxes,  he  demanded  from  Cakig  the  sur- 
render of  his  kingdom,  and  upon  his  refusal  the  em- 
peror without  scruple  entered  into  an  alliance  with 
the  Saracens,  and,  aided  by  some  native  traitors  too, 
easily  managed  the  surrender  of  Ani.  The  surrender 
of  Ani,  the  last  bulwark  of  our  people,  was  Armenia's 
grave,  the  deadly  Waterloo,  and  resulted  in  the  subse- 
quent overthrow  of  our  dynasty.  For  such  an  act,  our 
ancestors  justly  looked  upon  the  Greeks  as  oppressors, 
and  in  consequence  of  such  a  feeling  the  natural  ties  of 
religion  which  united  them  against  the  enemies  of  their 
common  faith  were  dissolved,  and  our  people  would  no 
longer  co-operate  with  them  or  fight  their  battles.  The 
Turks  were  ready.  The  frontier  provinces,  now  unpro- 
tected, offered  an  easy  entrance  to  Seljuk  inroads,  which 
in  the  course  of  time  resulted  in  the  final  destruction  of 
the  Byzantine  Empire  itself.  In  the  year  1079,  amid 
overwhelming  tragedies,  the  control  of  the  territory 
passed  to  Constantinople. 


THE    RHUPENIAN    DYNASTY.     I080-I393. 

The  Byzantine  Empire,  under  the  sway  of  weak  and 
unstable  monarchs,  was  on  the  road  to  rapid  decline 
before  the  conquering  arms  of  the  Moslem.  Seljuks 
poured  into  Asia  Minor  like  a  mighty  deluge,  and 
reached  as  far  as  to  Nicaea,  only  fifty  miles  from  Con- 
stantinople. Meanwhile,  Armenian  settlements,  in  the 
form  of  semi-independent  principalities,  were  scattered 
broadcast  like  isles  in  the  midst  of  the  tempest-tossed 
ocean  of  Mohammedanism.     The  dwindlinof  successors 


6o         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

of  imperial  Trajan  could  no  longer  exert  any  extended 
controlling  influence  upon  the  affairs  of  the  Armenian 
people.  Under  such  surroundings  and  circumstances, 
Rhupen,  a  relative  of  Cakig,  the  last  king  of  the  Pa- 
gradid  house,  with  sufficient  strength  raised  the  stand- 
ard of  independence  in  the  mountains  of  northeastern 
Cilicia,  and  under  the  shadow  of  Taurus  builded  up  a 
petty  kingdom,  known  as  Lesser  Armenia,  whose 
dominions  duly  extended  over  Cilicia  and  Cappadocia. 
This'little  kincrdom,  for  close  on  three  centuries  of  its 
existence,  was  for  the  most  part  in  a  state  of  compara- 
tive prosperity  ;  yet  its  tranquillity  was  not  perpetuated, 
for  when  the  Mameluke  of  Egypt  passed  through  our 
country  with  fire  and  sword,  the  people,  in  the  hope  of 
protection,  allied  themselves  with  the  Mongol  hordes  of 
Genghiz  Khan.  Such  an  alliance,-  however,  proved  of 
no  moment  to  the  terrible  fury  of  the  conquering  hosts 
of  the  Egyptian  Sultan  Schaban.  who,  with  boundless 
vengeance,  made  an  end  once  for  all  to  the  last  ill- 
fated  dynasty  of  our  fathers  (1375  a.  d.). 

Rhupenians  are  conspicuous  for  their  connection  with 
the  crusaders.  It  was  through  the  aid  of  Constantine, 
Rhupen's  son,  that  the  Christians  captured  Antioch  ; 
and  again  in  later  years  we  find  Levon,  who  allied 
himself  with  Emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa  in  the  third 
crusade  and  aided  him  in  the  capture  of  Iconium  (1 190). 
Thus  Rhupenians,  with  the  kings  of  Cyprus,  formed 
the  last  bulwark  of  Christianity  in  the  East. 

Levon  VI.  (Ghevond  VI.),  the  last  of  the  line,  was 
captured  in  1375,  in  spite  of  a  vigorous  defense  at  Gafar, 
and  banished  into  Egypt,  where,  after  six  years  of  cap- 
tivity, he  was   set  free.      Upon    his  liberation,   having 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG-^THE   ARMENIANS.  6l 

spent  years  of  extensive  travel  through  Europe,  he 
settled  in  Paris,  until  the  time  of  his  death  in  1393, 
where  he  was  buried  by  the  high  altar  in  the  Chapel  of 
'St.  Denis.  The  following  inscription  still  exists  upon 
his  monument  : 

Here  Lies 
LEVON    VI. 

The  Noble  Louisiniaii  Prince 
The  King  of  Armenia 
Who  died  1393  a.  D.,  Nov.  23d,  in  Paris.  * 

The  author  counts  it  his  good  fortune  when  in  Paris  to 
have  visited  his  tomb.  What  thoughts  filled  the  mind, 
what  feelings  moved  the  heart  of  an  Armenian  youth,' 
as  he  stood  in  a  strange  land  by  the  grave  of  the  last 
king  of  his  country  !  Time  and  distance  cannot  affect 
the  profound  impression  of  that  scene.  It  is  said  that 
his  body,  clad  in  robes  of  white,  with  a  c^olden  scepter 
placed  within  his  hand  and  an  opal  crown  upon  his 
head,  was  carried  to  the  tomb  in  regal  pomp.  Thus 
sadly  does  the  unseemly  show  of  death's  procession 
mock  at  life's  stern  realities. 

With  the  disappearance  of  this  last  shadow  of 
Armenian  independence,  our  country  has  remained  to 
this  very  day  a  land  of  many  sorrows.  Of  all  the  alien 
dominations  in  the  history  of  Armenia,  none  has 
been  so  unbearable  to  our  unhappy  people  as  the 
domination  of  the  Mohammedan  power,  which  still 
continues  to  curse  homes  and  fatherland.  We  find 
about  the  year  1300  Tamerlane,  the  Napoleon  of 
Asia,  entered  into  Armenia  and  brought  upon  its 
people     horrors    of     unspeakable     carnage.       Indeed, 


62         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

wherever  Tamerlane  set  his  foot  his  conquests  were 
marked  with  the  wholesale  massacre  of  the  inhabitants 
and  the  utter  desolation  of  their  cities  and  villages. 
In  the  city  of  Van  he  threw  the  inhabitants  from  the 
walls  of  the  castle,  until  the  corpses  almost  reached 
to  the  height  of  the  walls.  At  Sivas,  ancient  Sebaste, 
he  buried  over  four  hundred  Armenians  alive.  These 
graves  are  known  to  this  day  as  "black  graves," 
which  places  of  melancholy  interest  I  have  often 
visited. 

In  1 604  about  forty  thousand  of  the  Armenians  were 
forcibly  transplanted  into  Persia,  by  Shah  Abbas,  who, 
after  his  contest  with  Ahmed  I.,  had  laid  waste  our 
unhappy  country. 

No  nation  better  illustrates  the  vicissitudes  of 
history  than  does  the  Armenian.  Her  fortunes,  like 
her  country's  boundary,  have  varied  with  every  chang- 
ing generation.  Assyrian,  Persian,  Macedonian, 
Roman,  Byzantine,  Arab,  Seljuk,  Tartar,  and  Ottoman 
have  all  swept  across  our  fair  land  with  fire  and  sword, 
with  a  regularity  of  the  motion  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
in  their  courses  ;  and  yet  what  a  marvelous  vitality 
and  strength  Armenians  must  have  possessed  to  have 
withstood  the  clash  and  combat  of  twenty  centuries ; 
while  contemporary  nations  have  long  since  vanished 
and  passed  away.  As  we  look  upon  Armenia's  past  mis- 
fortunes, and  her  culminating  tragedies  of  to-day,  shall 
we  attribute  such  mutilation  wholly  to  inherent  weak- 
ness ?  True,  insubordination  and  jealousy  have  ever 
been  our  people's  national  sin, — indeed,  our  national 
curse, — for  which  we  have  paid  very  dearly.     Yet   it 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG — THE   ARMENIANS.  63 

cannot  be  said  of  us  that  we  are  craven  in  spirit  or 
utterly  supine.  Our  people  have  existed  from  the 
deathless  and  forgotten  past  to  this  very  day,  and  this 
fact  alone,  when  compared  with  the  decline  of  our  con- 
temporaries, is  ample  proof  that  had  it  not  been  for 
the  characteristic  vitality,  courage,  and  heroism  of  its 
people,  our  race  would  have  ceased  to  exist  long  cen- 
turies ago.  Here  it  will  be  most  fitting  to  briefly 
touch  on  Armenians  of  to-day  and  on  their  character- 
istics. The  recent  massacres,  their  development  and 
causes,  we  have  recorded  at  length  in  another  chapter 
of  this  volume. 

Prior  to  these  widespread  Armenian  massacres,  the 
great  mass  of  Americans,   in   their  almost  total  igno- 
rance of  Armenians,  confused  us  with  the  Turks,  in  a 
manner   not   unlike  to   some  of  our  ignorant  people, 
who   presumed   the   Americans  were  civilized  sons   of 
once    uncivilized     North    American    Indians.       Quite 
frequently    have     I     myself    been    introduced     in    my 
lectures  to  American  audiences  as   "  the  young  Chris- 
tian Turk  with  an  unpronounceable  name."      What  an 
undeserved  encomium  to  the  Turk  ;  who,  ever  loyal  to 
the  Saracen   Prophet,  never  embraces  Christian  morals 
and  ethics,  and  what  an  unwarranted  disparagement  to 
the    "young    man    with    an    unpronounceable    name," 
whose  fathers  have  been  Christians  ever  since   there 
was  Christianity.      Nor  is  religion   the  only  gulf  that 
separates  the  Armenian   from   the   Turk,  but   in  race, 
in   nationality,   in    language,   in   character,   and   aspect 
there  is  equally  as  wide  and  irreconcilable  a  separation, 
and  as  truly  marked,  as  the  separation  of  the  American 
from  the  "  Red  Man  in  the  West."     Let  us  then  briefly 


64         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

consider  the  distino-uishine  characteristics  of  these 
two  antagonistic  peoples.  Let  iis  first  take  the 
race. 

Ethnologists  treat  of  Aryans  and  Turanians' among 
the  primitive  human  families,  as  to  either  their  com- 
plexion or  intelligence.  Armenians,  known  as  the 
"Anglo-Saxons  of  the  East,"  are  of  pure  Caucasian 
blood  and  belong  to  the  progressive  nations  of  the 
Western  civilization,  to  the  great  Aryan  family  of  races, 
while  the  Turks,  with  a  mighty  host  of  Asiatics,  belong 
to  the  Turanian  race  and  are  of  Mongolian  blood. 
Thus  they  do  not  belong  even  to  the  next  best  of 
races,  the  Semitic,  but  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  race 
ladder.  There  is  no  social  intercourse,  nor  is  there 
any  intermarriage  between  these  unlike  races  ;  for  it 
has  been  the  ruling  trait  in  the  Armenian  national 
character  througrhout  all  ae^es  to  remain  as  much 
isolated  as  possible  from  the  Turanian  and  other 
elements  of  lower  order;  and,  to  be  sure,  it  is 
largely  due  to  this  centuries-rooted  separation  that  our 
conquered  race  has  not  been  lost  in  the  alien  blood  of 
the  conqueror.  In  nationality,  as  has  been  indicated 
in  the  first  pages  of  this  chapter,  the  Armenians  are 
the  sons  of  Haig,  and  we  are  the  aborigines  of  the 
region  that  lies  under  the  shadow  of  Ararat,  the  birth- 
place of  civilization,  where  we  have  lived  for  centuries 
immemorial,  amid  the  hallowed  recollections  of  Eden, 
and  to-day,  notwithstanding  the  wrecks  of  time,  we 
still  cry  : 

"  Might  I  choose  from  the  world  where  my  dwelling  should  be, 
I  would  say,  Still  thy  ruins  are  Eden  to  me, 
My  beloved  Armenia!  " 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG — THE   ARMENIANS.  65 

There  is  nothing  in  common,  in  the  national 
memories  of  the  Turk,  with  the  Armenian,  except  the 
fact  that,  as  a  member  of  one  of  the  most  widely 
scattered  nomadic  tribes  of  central  Asia,  he  has  ' 
encamped  in  the  land  of  our  fathers,  as  an  alien  tyrant 
holding  our  people  in  bondage  ;  and,  after  the  lapse  of 
five  centuries,  he  is  to-day  every  inch  the  same  alien 
tyrant,  hostile,  intolerant,  and  destructive.  Among 
other  nations,  when  a  conquest  has  continued  as  long 
a  time  as  Turkish  conquests  have  in  Armenia,  both 
the  conquerors  and  the  conquered  have  managed  to 
affiliate  in  a  peaceful  fellowship,  and  in  most  cases 
have  become  one  people,  with  a  common  interest  and 
government,  but  this  has  not  been  the  case  with  the 
Turk.  Turk  he  is,  Turk  he  has  remained,  and  Turk 
he  will  remain  to  the  end.  His  religious  and  political 
interests  are  not  the  interests  of  the  Armenian,  any 
more  than  the  interests  of  the  Turk  have  been  the 
interests  of  the  Greek,  the  Bulgarian,  and  many  other 
races  whom  he  has  conquered  in  their  own  lands.  In 
the  strictest  sense,  the  Turkish  Sultan  is  not  the 
national  sovereign  of  the  Armenians,  or  even  of 
Turkey  itself ;  for  Turkey  is  made  up  of  different 
peoples  of  diverse  interests  and  aspirations.  So  let 
us  clearly  bear  in  mind  that  while  we  speak  of  the 
Armenian  as  being  a  Turkish  subject,  we  should  not 
associate  ideas  of  national  affiliation  and  fellowship, 
which  we  are  usually  accustomed  to  associate  with 
other  countries. 

That  there  is  a  great  contrast  in  the  character  and 
aspect  of  these  two  peoples,  so  diverse  in  their  charac- 
teristics of  religion,  race,  and  nationality,  can  easily  be 


66  THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

understood.  To  Turkish  dullness,  depravity,  and 
worthlessness,  as  a  government  and  as  an  individual, 
we  have,  in  the  pages  of  this  book,  frequently  referred 
on  good  authority,  and  from  personal  observation  and 
well-authenticated  facts. 

Consider  a  moment  as  you  reflect  upon  the  career  of 
the  Turks,  and  you  will  scarcely  find  a  people  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  so  hateful  to  all  civilizing  influences 
of  the  age  as  the  Turks.  They  have  come  in  contact 
with  Europe,  but  have  not  been  influenced  by  its  civili- 
zation. Whatever  the  evolution  of  the  times  has  done 
for  other  people,  it  has  done  nothing  for  the  Turks. 
Branded  with  the  stagnation  of  primitive  times,  they 
have  contrived  to  abstain  from  the  blessings  of  civiliza- 
tion. Science  and  philosophy  are  alien  to  the  minds 
of  even  their  high  governmental  and  religious  func- 
tionaries. Rev.  J.  F.  Riggs,  one  of  the  American 
missionaries  in  Turkey,  relates  that  the  late  Sir  Henry 
Austin  Layard,  the  English  diplomatist  and  archaeol- 
ogist, toiled  along  with  one  of  the  Turkish  pashas  to 
interest  him  in  astronomy.  He  gave  glowing  accounts 
of  tlie  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  especially  he 
described  the  comets,  with  their  strange  mystery. 
When  he  paused  at  last,  the  pasha  said,  "  Well,  you 
say  that  the  comet  comes  near  and  then  goes  away 
again  ? "  "  Yes,  I  said  that,"  replied  the  veteran 
Englishman.  "  Very  well,"  retorted  the  pasha,  "let  it 
go."  Such  a  response  from  a  Turkish  governor,  who 
represents  the  highest  culture  of  his  people,  might  well 
illustrate  the  scope  of  Turkish  intelligence. 

As  to  Armenians,  we  have  our  own  civilization  and 
culture.      If  our  civilization  and  culture  are  not  as  high 


JOHN    AYVAZOVSK,    THE    ARMENIAN    PAINTER, 


68         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

as  those  of  Western  nations,  we  are  a  progressive 
people,  at  least,  which  is  a  marvelous  quality  to  pos- 
sess in  a  land  like  Turkey,  where  stagnation  reigns 
supreme. 

One  need  only  become  acquainted  with  the  Armenian 
race  to  convince  himself  in  regard  to  the  superior  place 
which  our  people  occupy  in  the  advance  march  of 
civilization.  We  have  our  own  literature,  rich  with 
poets,  historians,  critics,  translators,  and  scholars.  Nor 
are  the  Armenians  less  conspicuous  in  the  field  of 
commercial  and  political  activity.  Indeed,  in  spite  of 
the  most  gigantic  obstacles  thrown  on  the  path  of  the 
progress  and  development  of  our  race,  the  Armenians 
have,  as  a  people,  always  occupied  an  advanced  posi- 
tion in  everything  that  requires  energy,  capacity,  and 
intelligence.  This  is  true  not  only  of  the  Armenians 
in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  but  in  Russia  and  in  India, 
and,  indeed,  wherever  they  may  be  found.  Should  my 
reader  be  disposed  to  think  that  the  encomium  I  have 
paid  to  my  race  is  overdrawn  or  too  loud,  let  him  read 
the  followingr  abstracts  from  men  of  the  grreatest 
authority,  who  know  our  people,  and  whose  names  alone 
are  sufficient  guaranty  for  the  disinterestedness  and 
sincerity  of  their  motives.  While  there  is  a  host  of 
them,  I    shall   quote  only   from  a  few  men. 

The  historian  Professor  James  Bryce  says  : 

They  are  a  strong  race,  not  only  with  vigorous  nerves  and 
sinews,  physically  active  and  energetic,  but  also  with  conspicuous 
brain po7ver.  Thus  they  have  held  a  very  important  place  among 
the  inhabitants  of  western  Asia  ever  since  the  sixth  century.  If 
you  look  into  the  annals  of  the  East  Roman,  or  Byzantine,  Empire, 
you  will  find  that  most  of  the  men  who  rose  to  eminence  in  its 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG— THE   ARMENIANS.  69 

service  as  generals  or  statesmen  during  the  early  Middle  A^es 

Tfl  T^'Tu'T  "'""''■  ^"  ""'  ''  ''''  '''''  ^he  establishment 
of  the  Turkish  dominion  in  Europe.  Many  of  the  ablest  men  in 
the  Turkish  service  have  been  Armenian  by  birth  or  extraction 
The  same  is  true  with  regard  to  the  Russian  service.  Among  all 
those  who  dwe  1  m  western  Asia,  they  stand  first,  with  a  capacity 
for  intellectual  and  moral  progress,  as  well  as  with  a  natural 
tenacity  of  will  and  purpose,  beyond  that  of  all  their  neighbors 
not  merely  of  Turks,  Tartars.  Kurds,  and  Persians,  but  also  of 
Kussians. 

The   famous  author    Emile    De   Laveleye   says,    in 
"The  Balkan  Peninsula": 

The  Armenians  are  intelligent,  laborious,  economical,  and 
excellent  business  men.  They  occupy  official  appointments  in 
the  administration  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  in  Constanti- 
nople they  are  the  chief  promoters  of  economical  activity  Their 
cmhzation  is  among  the  oldest  in  Asia.  Their  annals  date  from 
the  earliest  historic  times. 

The  late  Rev.  H.  G.  O.  Dwight.  D.  D..  one  of  the 
pioneer  missionaries  of  the  American  Board  amon^ 
our  people,  reflects  the  observations  of  many  years  in 
these  words  : 

They  [Armenians]  have  shown  themselves  to  be  superior  to 
any  other  race  in  commercial  tact  and  in  mechanical  skill  The 
principal  merchants  are  Armenians,  and  nearly  all  the  ereat 
bankers  of  the  government;  and,  whatever  arts  there  are  that 
require  peculiar  ingenuity  and  skill,  they  are  almost  sure  to  be  in 
the  hands  of  the  Armenians.  .  .  In  one  word,  they  are  the 
Anglo-Saxons  of  the  East.  ^ 

Armenian  progress  has,  owing  to  the  unfortunate 
condition  of  the  countr3^  made  itself  more  felt  abroad 
than  at  home.  I  might  draw  up  a  very  long  catalogue 
ot    Armenians    who    have    highly  distinguished   them- 


70  IHE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF  HAIG. 

selves  in  various  branches  of  arts  and  sciences,  but  a 
few  only  need  here  be  mentioned:     The  painter  John 
Ayvazovsk    of    the    Council    of    the    St.     Petersburg 
Academy    of    Fine    Arts,    whose    works    adorn    the 
imperial  palaces  of  the  Czar,  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  and 
other    royal    dignitaries ;    Nubar    Pasha,  the    ex-prime 
minister  of  the   Egyptian   government;  while  Dikran 
and  Boghos  Pashas  are  equally  great  in  African  states- 
manship.    Among    expert    physicians    in    Turkey  are 
Doctors    Mateosian,  Khorassanjian,  Dobrashian,  Var- 
tanian,    etc.,    while    among   the   greatest    lawyers   are 
Mosditchian   and  Tingnerian.     Among  musicians   are 
Chonkhajian,  Devletian,   Surenian,  and  a  young  lady 
named   Nartoss,  who  frequently  presides  at  the  piano 
before  the  Sultan.     The  Sultan's  treasurer,  Portukalian 
Pasha.     The  chief  counselor   in  the    foreign  office  at 
Constantinople,  Harontiune  Dadian  Pasha.     The  Sul- 
tan's   photographers,    Abdullah    brothers   and    Sebah. 
The    Sultan's    personal  jeweler,  Chiboukjian.      H.   E. 
Daud  Pasha  was  the  first  "Christian"  governor,  who 
became,  after   the  massacre  of  the  Christians  of  Mt. 
Lebanon  in  i860,  the  governor-general  of  that  region. 
The  magnificent  hospital  at  Smyrna  is  a  monument  to 
Startalian's  benevolence.      Many  steamers  which   ply 
on  the  Mediterranian  are  owned  by  Balyivzian.     The 
chess     player     Adamian,     the      Berlin     mineralogist 
Azruni,    the  London   archaeologist  Hormuzd   Rassam, 
the  Zurich  chemist   Abelianz,  and  bankers  and  finan- 
ciers in  almost  every  country  prove  that  Armenia  is 
more   nearly  abreast  of   the    Western  World    than  is 
perhaps  generally    suspected.     The  splendid   Lazareff 
Institute    at   Moscow,  with   its  twenty    professors    of 


H.    E.    DAUD   PASHA,    LATE    ARMENIAN    GOVERNOR    OF    MOUNT   LEBANON. 


72  THE   TURK   AND    THE    LAND    OF   HAIG. 

Oriental  languages,  is  an  imperishable  monument  to 
the  enlightened  generosity  of  an  Armenian  millionaire 
of  the  last  century. 

In  Russia  there  are  quite  a  number  of  Armenian 
generals,  some  of  whom  have  been  the  greatest  in  the 
Czar's  army.  Let  me  mention  the  names  of  a  few  of 
them  :  Count  Yoris  Melikoff ;  Generals  Lazareff, 
Tergukasoff,  Lucasoff ;  Kishmishian,  the  commander 
of  Caucasus  ;  Hagop  Alkhazian,  Alexander  Lalayian, 
Demedr  Der  Asadurian,  Ishkhan  Mannelian,  Alexan- 
der Gorganian,  Ishkhan  Gocliaminassian,  Aeakel 
Khantamirian,   and    others. 

In  all  the  great  cities  of  Russia  the  Armenians  are 
conspicuous.  University  and  college  professors, 
judges,  mayors,  and  high  civil  functionaries  are  to 
be  found  on  every  hand.  Let  me  recall  the  names  of 
a  few  only  :  Minister  of  Education,  Count  Hovhaunes 
Telyanian  ;  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  Asia, 
Gamazian  ;  Counselor  of  Education,  Mugerditch  Emin  ; 
professor  in  the  Royal  University  at  Moscow,  Nerses 
Nersesian,  and  De  Shilantz  in  the  medical  college 
at  Kharcof ;  A.  Madanian,  mayor  of  Tiflis ;  V. 
Keghamian,  mayor  of  Erevan,  and  many  others. 
Nor  are  the  Armenians  in  Persia  and  India  less  con- 
spicuous. Chahanguir  Khan,  the  Minister  of  Arts  and 
superintendent  of  the  Arsenal  ;  Nirza  Melkoum  Khan, 
the  ex-ambassador  of  Persia  at  London  ;  Nazar  Agha, 
the  ambassador  of  Persia  at  Paris;  General  Sharl 
Bezirganian,  the  general  superintendent  of  the  tele- 
graph service.  Go  where  you  will. — Turkey,  Russia, 
India,  Persia.  Egypt.  Poland,  Transylvania,  Roumania, 
and  throuehout  central   Asia, — and  vou   will   find    the 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   HAIG — THE   ARMENIANS,  73 

Armenian  holding  a  high,  if  not  always  a  leading,  posi- 
tion in  trade  and  arts.  In  commercial  affairs  our 
people  are  large  producers  as  well  as  middlemen  and 
financiers.  In  Asia  Minor  and  Persia  the  manufacture 
of  carpets  and  rugs,  so  renowned  throughout  the  world, 
is  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Armenians;  and, 
in  addition,  in  Constantinople  and  every  town  of 
Asiatic  Turkey  our  people  form  the  professional  class 
par  excellence. 

I  cannot  close  this  chapter  on  the  fortunes  of  my 
people  without  an  appeal  to  that  great  cosmopolitan 
nation,  the  secret  of  whose  marvelous  unity  is  free- 
dom and  intelligence,  to  aid  in  the  enlightenment, 
encouragement,  and  consequent  liberation  of  a  people, 
kindred  though  remote,  who,  through  the  thick  fogs  of 
tyranny  and  gloom  of  oppression,  have  kept  intact  the 
love  of  liberty,    the   very   font   of  manhood,   together 

with  those    qualities    that  make    good    citizenship 

strength   and    sobriety. 


ARMENIAN    LITERATURE. 


"  The  Armenian  literature  is  rich  and  continuous,  uninterrupted 
through  all  the  Middle  Ages.  It  has  furnished  philosophers,  his- 
torians, theologians,  and  poets." — Professor  Emile  de  Laveleye. 

pOLK-LORE,  the  mother  of  literature,  with  its 
^  legends  and  simple  rural  songs,  forms  the  fountain- 
head  of  every  nation's  purest  thought  and  noblest  sen- 
timent. Long,  long  ere  letters  were  invented,  the  enrap- 
tured heart  of  the  poet  broke  forth  in  song,  the  rhythm 
so  complete  that  not  a  word  could  be  changed  without 
destroying  the  sense.  Was  it  not  so  with  blind  Homer  ? 
Armenia's  heritage  of  song  is  her  richest  treasure, 
bequeathed  by  misty  figures  of  the  prehistoric  past. 
So  ancient  are  her  melodies  that  they  seem  the  breath 
of  her  body  and  the  light  of  her  soul. 

A  country's  scenery,  its  lofty  mountains,  green  hills, 
and  fertile  valleys  exert  an  influence  upon  the  physical 
conditions  and  intellectual  standards  of  its  people  that 
cannot  be  overestimated.  Switzerland,  with  its  grand 
uplifting  heights,  is  famed  for  the  inborn  love  of 
liberty  cherished  by  its  people.  Burns,  living  close  to 
nature's  heart,  sang  sweetly  and  truly  Scotland's  charm  ; 
and  to-day  his  songs  the  world  over  with  magic  touch 
raise  fond  uplifting  memories  in  many  an  exiled 
Scottish  heart.  Armenia,  too,  has  her  bards,  whose 
songs  are  enriched  by  the  natural  scenery  which  first 
echoed   their   refrain.     The   native   poet's  passion   for 

74 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  75 

birds  and  flowers  inspires  his  every  line,  while  the 
varied  perfumes  of  the  fields  breathe  from  many  a 
stanza.  From  the  sunny  vales  and  hills,  with  memories 
around  and  the  moldering  generations  beneath,  the 
shepherd's  strain  floats  out  and  fills  the  solitary  places 
with  the  old  tuneful  names  of  Armenia's  heroic  race. 
How  their  sweet  and  mournful  melodies  lulled  my  boy- 
hood, and  how  the  memory  still  thrills  my  exile  heart  ! 

There  is  a  paucity  of  Armenian  written  literature  prior 
to  the  Christian  era.  This  is  due  in  a  large  measure  to 
St.  Gregory's  religious  zeal,  which  really  amounted  to 
fanaticism  ;  for,  in  order  to  give  the  incipient  Chris- 
tianity a  clear  headway,  he  caused  a  wholesale  destruc- 
tion of  everything  pagan, — literature,  monuments,  and 
temples, — apparently  without  a  moment's  consideration 
of  their  inestimable  worth  to  posterity.  Thus  the  great 
illuminator  of  religion  became  the  eliminator  of 
Armenian  literature.  However,  we  have  proof  that  the 
national  enthusiasm  for  knowledge  is  not  of  modern 
inspiration.  So  proud  a  people  will  not  willingly  let 
their  deeds  of  valor  on  hard-fought  fields  die  unrecorded, 
and  we  find  that  the  names  of  heroes  and  saees  were 
household  words  at  every  family  altar  and  fireside,  and 
that  cherished  names  and  historical  events,  garnered  in 
national  song  and  story,  were  handed  from  generation 
to  generation  as  sacred  traditions  for  centuries,  until  the 
art  of  writing  became  common. 

Modern  archaeologists  have  discovered  and  deciphered 
ancient  cuneiform  records  which  form  a  valuable 
acquisition  to  traditionary  lore.  Assyrian,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew  records  help  to  fill  in  the  missing  links  in  an 
almost  unbroken  chain,  so  that  Armenian  tradition  may 


^6  THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

be  said  to  more  nearly  approach  historical  literature 
in  nature  and  value  than  that  of  any  other  nation  of 
the  earth.  The  unwritten  history  of  the  masses  is  con- 
firmed in  most  essential  points  by  the  modern  reading 
of  the  records  of  the  few  who  were  able  to  engrave  the 
facts  of  history  on  the  rocky  face  of  the  everlasting 
hills.  Time  has  dealt  kindly  with  these  precious 
records,  and  the  curious  student  may  find  a  full  account 
of  their  discovery  in  the  annals  of  archaeology.  Like 
the  tombs  of  Egypt,  the  cradle  of  the  human  race  is 
slowly  but  surely  giving  up  the  secrets  of  thousands  of 
years.  The  earliest  and  most  valued  of  our  historical 
sources  is  the  work  of  Agathangaegos,  the  private 
secretary  of  King  Tiridates  of  Armenia,  who  flourished 
in  the  third  century  of  the  Christian  era. 

The  rarest  manuscripts  I  have  seen  are  found  in  the 
alcoves  of  Armenian  monastic  libraries.  About  two 
thousand  of  them  are  preserved  at  Etchmiazin,  and 
twelve  hundred  in  the  convent  of  San  Lazaro  at  Venice. 
The  Royal  Library  at  Paris,  through  the  emissaries  of 
Louis  XI  v.,  procured  about  two  hundred,  and  there  are 
several  in  the  Bodleian  Librnry  and  the  British  Museum. 
Many  of  these  are  the  work  of  inferior  or  obscure 
writers,  but  all  of  them  have  a  great  value  because  of 
their  antiquity  and  the  painstaking  care  with  which  the 
laborious  work  of  copying  was  done. 

In  the  fifth  century,  a  period  of  marked  intellectual 
activity,  lived  Moses  of  Chorene,  known  among  his 
countrymen  as  Movses  Khorentzi,  by  far  the  best- 
known  and  the  most  important  source  of  Armenian 
history.  Indeed  he  may  be  the  called  the  Herodotus 
of  the  Armenian  people.     He  treasured  in  his  works 


ARMENIAN    LITERATURE.  'J'J 

the  traditional  history,  stories,  and  ballads  of  his  time, 
parts  of  which  were  handed  down  orally  with  an  accu- 
racy unusual  in  tradition. 

Western  readers  are  familiar  with  the  work  of  Bishop 
Ulfilas,  who  first  gave  literary  form  to  the  Gothic  by 
devising  an  alphabet  and  translating  the  Bible.  In  this 
same  fifth  century  St.  Mesrob,  an  illustrious  prelate  of 
an  Armenian  monastery,  rendered  similar  service  to 
Armenia  by  modifying  the- alphabet  to  its  present 
form,  and  then  translating  the  Bible  into  our  language. 
St.  Mesrob  is  sometimes  called  the  inventor  of  the 
Armenian  letters,  but  this  is  a  greater  honor  than  is  his 
due.  Prior  to  his  introduction  of  the  Armenian  charac- 
ters the  Greek  alphabet  was  used  by  our  nation.  It 
appears  that  our  patriarch  Isaec  the  Great  first  under- 
took the  translation  of  the  Bible,  but,  inasmuch  as  the 
Persians  had  destroyed  all  the  Greek  manuscripts,  he  was 
obliged,  with  the  aid  of  Mesrob,  to  make  a  translation 
from  the  Peshito,  or  Syriac  version,  and  they  actually 
completed  their  translation  from  this  version.  But 
Jonnes  Ecceleusis  and  Josephus  Palnensis,  pupils  of  St. 
Mesrob,  returning  from  the  Ecclesiastical  Council  of 
Ephesus  to  which  they  were  delegated,  brought  with 
them  an  accurate  copy  of  the  Greek  Bible,  the  authentic 
text  of  which  led  Mesrob  to  abapdon  his  translation 
from  the  Peshito  and  to  commence  anew  from  the 
Greek.  Hampered  by  his  imperfect  knowledge  of 
Greek,  he  found  it  necessary  to  send  his  pupils  to 
centers  of  Greek  scholarship  to  acquire  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  that  tongue.  Upon  their  return  the 
translation  was  accomplished,  after  almost  a  half  century 
of  persevering  toil.     So   remarkable  is  this  translation 


78         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

in  its  accuracy  and  beauty  of  diction,  so  perfect  in  its 
classic  style,  that  to  this  very  day  it  is  known  as  the 
"Queen  of  Versions."  In  the  Old  Testament  this  ver- 
sion closely  adheres  to  the  Septuagint,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  book  of  Daniel,  which  follows  the  version  of 
Theodotion  ;  while  the  version  of  the  New  Testament 
is  faithful  to  the  original  Greek. 

In  the  sixth  century,  upon  the  occasion  of  an  organic 
union  between  the  Armenian  and  the  Syrian  churches, 
this  version  was  revised  and  adapted  to  the  Peshito  ; 
yet  the  original  has  suffered  much  interpolated  altera- 
tion, notably  in  the  thirteenth  century,  when  King 
Hethom  of  Armenia,  an  ardent  Roman  Catholic  who 
afterward  became  a  Franciscan  monk,  adapted  the 
Armenian  version  to  the  Vulgate  for  the  purpose  of 
opening  the  way  for  the  union  of  the  Armenian  and 
Roman  churches. 

The  translation  of  the  Bible  operated  powerfully  on 
our  language  and  literature  by  giving  a  great  impulse 
to  literary  and  intellectual  activity.  The  Grecian 
philosophy,  which  was  held  in  profound  admiration  by 
our  scholars,  was  called  to  the  aid  of  our  Christian 
theology.  An  eager  crowd  of  Armenian  students  and 
writers  flocked  to  the  educational  centers  of  the  Orient 
and  the  Occident,  and  brought  back  home  with  them 
the  best  of  learning  for  the  cultivation  of  their  own 
literature.  To  their  translations  we  are  indebted  for 
tlie  preservation  of  many  valuable  works  partially  or 
wholly  lost  in  the  original.  Among  these  are:  The 
Chronicle  of  Eusebius ;  the  Discourses  of  Philo ; 
homilies  by  St.  Chrysostom,  Severianus,  Basil  the 
Great,  and  Ephraim    Syrus ;  the  epistles   of  Ignatius, 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  79 

translated  from  the  Syrian  version  ;  the  Catechesis  of 
Cyril  of  Jerusalem  ;  several  homilies  by  Chrysostom, 
etc.  Of  this  period,  the  late  Professor  Philip  Schaff  of 
Union  Theological  Seminary  says  : 

In  spite  of  the  unfavorable  state  of  political  and  social  affairs 
in  Armenia  during  this  epoch,  more  than  six  hundred  Greek  and 
Syrian  works  were  translated  within  the  first  forty  years  after 
the  translation  of  the  Bible;  and  as  in  many  cases  the  original 
works  have  perished,  while  the  translations  have  been  preserved, 
the  great  importance  of  this  whole  literary  activity  is  appar- 
ent. .  .  The  period,  however,  was  not  characterized  by  transla- 
tions only.  Several  of  the  disciples  of  Mesrob  and  Sahak  left 
original  works.  Esnik  wrote  four  books  against  heretics,  printed 
at  Venice  in  1826,  and  translated  into  French  by  Le  Vailliant  de 
Florival,  Paris,  1853.  A  biography  of  Mesrob  by  Korium,  homi- 
lies by  Mambres,  and  various  writings  by  the  Philosopher  David 
have  been  published;  and  the  works  of  Moses  of  Chorene,  pub- 
lished in  Venice  in  1842,  and  again  in  1864,  have  acquired  a  wide 
celebrity;  his  history  of  Armenia  has  been  translated  into  Latin, 
French,  Italian,  and  Russian. 

From  the  seventh  to  the  tenth  century  is  the  period 
of  Armenia's  most  flourishing  literature ;  while  the 
sixth  century,  which  marked  the  separation  of  the 
Armenian  from  the  Greek  Church  after  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon,  may  well  be  called  the  dormant  era  of  the 
Armenian  literature,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  all  inter- 
course with  Greek  centers  of  learning  was  cut  off  by 
the  Persians. 

From  the  seventh  to  the  twelfth  century  many 
historical,  theological,  and  biographical  writers  and 
writers  of  hymns  flourished.  The  twelfth  and  the 
thirteenth  centuries,  in  which  Syriac  influence  pre- 
dominated, was  a  period  of  great  literary  activity.     In 


8o         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

the  twelfth,  among  leading  writers  Nerses  Shinorhali 
stands  foremost  as  a  poet,  whose  hymns  of  deep 
spiritual  intensity  are  still  chanted  in  the  Armenian 
churches.  Nerses  Lambronensis  was  also  famous  as  a 
biblical  scholar  and  orator.  Michael  Syrus  the  his- 
torian, whose  work  has  been  edited  with  a  French 
translation  by  Langlois  (Paris,  1864),  was  not  less 
famous.  The  leading  authors  of  the  thirteenth  century 
were  Krikor  Sgnevratzi,  Kevork  Sgnevratzi,  Mukliitar 
Anetzi ;  and  Bishops  Vanayan  and  Vartan,  who  wrote 
commentaries  and  historical  works. 

Later  the  Armenians  of  the  West  gave  to  literature 
such  names  as  Rivola  (1633),  Villote,  La  Croze, 
Osgan,  and  others,  who  were  all  eclipsed  by  St.  Martin. 
In  Russia  and  France  the  Armenians  ranked  among 
the  best  writers;  while  Justi,  Neumann,  and  Perter- 
mann  in  Germany  have  made  enviable  reputations.  For 
my  readers  the  names  of  Armenian  literary  lights 
would  be  only  a  tedious  catalogue  of  unpronounceable 
words  ;  to  write  something  of  their  lives  and  activities 
would  require  volumes.  It  is  sufficient,  however,  to 
note  that,  in  spite  of  the  political  disasters  which  have 
signalized  our  history,  the  Armenians  have  always 
maintained  a  national  literature  of  the  highest  order, 
and  our  language  has  at  the  same  time  been  per- 
fected by  modifications  and  changes  in  orthography, 
syntax,  and  style.  As  to  its  relation  to  other  languages, 
there  are  conflicting  opinions  among  scholars.  By 
some  it  it  held  to  be  an  oricrinal  tongrue,  so  distinct 
from  the  rest  in  its  fundamental  character  that  it  can- 
not be  classed  with  any  of  the  great  families  of  lan- 
guages ;  while  by  others  it  is  classed  with  the  Medo- 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  8r 

Persian  family.  To  this  latter  classification,  however, 
we  cannot  subscribe  ;  for  the  apparent  similarity,  we 
believe,  is  simply  due  to  the  adoption  of  a  few  words 
resulting  from  our  country's  conquest,  while  no  funda- 
mental likeness  can  be  shown.  The  prevalent  belief 
now  is  that  the  Armenian  belongs  to  tlie  independent 
branch  of  the  Indo-European  family  of  languages.  It 
is  an  inflected  language  with  four  conjugations  and 
twelve  declensions.  In  syntax,  particularly  in  the  use 
of  the  participle,  the  classical  Armenian  bears  a  close 
resemblance  to  the  ancient  Greek,  but  it  has  no  gram- 
matical eender  or  dual  form,  and  its  definite  articles 
are  suffixes  of  a  single  letter.  As  to  accent  the  Ian- 
guage  is  deficient,  there  being  no  stated  rules  ;  but  it 
generally  falls  on  the  last  syllable. 

The  modern  Armenian  literature  commences  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  as  all  other  modern  literature  com- 
mences. Just  as  in  religion  the  Reformation  was  the 
greatest  movement  in  the  sixteenth  century,  so  was 
the  Renaissance  in  the  revival  of  letters.  The  action 
of  European  literature  on  Armenia  commences  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  present  century.  Distinction  of  the 
ancient  and  modern  literature  consists  in  that  ancient 
Armenian  is  almost  entirely  composed  of  religious 
writings,  both  in  verse  and  prose,  wTiile  the  modern 
Armenian  deals  with  secular  themes,  political,  social, 
scientific,  patriotic.  Classical  Armenian  flourished  in 
the  Church,  while  the  modern  Armenian  flourished  out- 
side of  the  Church  as  well  as  in  the  Church.  In  the 
mediaeval  ages  monasteries  were  the  repositories  of 
learning  as  well  as  the  bulwarks  of  religion.  The 
monks  were  the  only  scholars  down  to  the  time  of  the 


82         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

modern  era,  while  in  the  modern  Armenian  literature  it  is 
the  scholar  who  is  the  teacher  as  well  as  the  priest  who 
writes.  Instead  of  monasteries  schools  of  learning 
have  sprung  up,  and  when  these  schools  do  not  give 
sufficient  scope  to  the  intellectual  activities  of  the 
Armenians  they  are  attracted  by  the  Occidental  col- 
leges and  universities. 

Geographic  locality  has  also  influenced  the  Armenian 
language.     All  the  climates  under  which  the  Armenians 
flourished  have  placed  a  peculiar  stamp  upon   the  lan- 
guage as  well  as  the  life,  and  thus  the  language  of  the 
Armenians  in  Turkey,  in  Russia,  in  Persia,  in  India,  in 
France,  and  in  the  United  States  has  its  distinctively 
local   characteristics.      And   the   local  governments  in 
these  countries  have  affected   the  Armenian    thought 
to  the  degree  of  latitude  and  margin  they  have  given 
to  the  expansion  of  human  thought ;  and  thus  in  Russia, 
despotic  as  the  government  is,  the  Armenian   intellect 
has  found  a  greater  scope  of  activity  than  in  Turkey. 
In   Russia   novelists  such  as  Raffi,  and  patriotic  poets 
such  as  Batkanian  and  Nalbantian,  and  journalists  such 
as  Arzrooni,  have  flourished.      In  Turkey  the  Armenian 
language  has  not  found  as  large  a  scope  as  in   Russia, 
but  even  in  the  prevailing  vexatious  restrictions  of  the 
Turkish   censorship   of  the    press,    the   Armenian   lan- 
guage  has  flourished    to  a   marvelous    degree.       The 
Armenian    language    in    India  comes   next  to   that  of 
Russia  and  Turkey  in  importance  ;  but  it  will  find  its 
best  expression,   and    Armenian  intellect    its   greatest 
scope  of  activity,  in  France,  England,  and  in  the  United 
States,  owing  to  tlie  kindly,  genial,  friendly,  and  liberal 
atmosphere  that  prevails. 


'vwimrMmrMMtxTamm^.FmmMMRm 


.^r^KSlf^f  T  *3!f^'-r- 


EARLY    ARMENIAN    MONASTERIES — REPOSITORIES   OF    LEARNING. 


^4         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

In  the  present  century,  the  work  of  Armenian 
Romish  monks  of  the  convent  of  San  Lazaro,  Venice, 
may  rank  first,  as  it  has  given  a  great  impetus  to  the 
development  of  the  Hterature.  This  convent  is  a  relic 
of  mediaevalism  modified  by  modern  influence.  From 
it  have  come  original  works  and  periodicals,  many 
translations  of  standard  books  from  European  lan- 
guages, particularly  from  Italian,  French,  English,  and 
German,  together  with  valuable  dictionaries  and 
volumes  of  reference.  This  most  renowned  of  monas- 
tic organizations  was  founded  in  1701  by  Mechitar  de 
Petro,  D.  D.,  a  former  priest  and  a  secretary  of  Arch- 
bishop Michael  of  the  Armenian  Church,  who,  while 
in  the  service  of  his  motlier  Church,  was  in  secret  a 
proselyte  to  Rome  and  a  Jesuit.  In  1700,  while  he  was 
a  pastor  at  Constantinople,  strife  arose  between  two 
rival  patriarchs  of  the  national'  church,  and  the  com- 
munity was  divided  into  two  parties.  To  Mechitar  this 
was  a  signal  opportunity  to  advocate  submission  to  the 
Romish  Church.  Sucli  an  advocacy,  however,  brought 
upon  him  the  fiery  indignation  of  the  Armenian 
Church.  Indeed  the  storm  of  hostility  so  threatened 
to  overwhelm  him  that  the  French  ambassador's  pro- 
tection was  sought  and  readily  afforded,  whereupon 
Mechitar  removed  his  mask  and  openly  professed  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith.  The  increasing  animosity  of 
the  Armenians,  however,  drove  him  to  Smyrna  and 
from  thence  to  Modon  in  Morea.  In  1701  he  had 
founded  iq  Constantinople  a  new  religious  movement 
with  eleven  members.  At  Modon  the  Venetian 
government  granted  him  an  estate  upon  which  to 
build  a  convent  of  the  new  order,  and  he  took  possession 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  85 

of  it  in  1703.  War  between  the  Turks  and  Venetians 
necessitated  removal,  and  Mechitar,  coming  to  Venice 
in  1 715,  petitioned  the  Venetian  senate  for  a  safer  site. 
In  1 71 7  they  generously  gave  him  the  Island  of  San 
Lazaro,  where  a  convent  bearing  Mechitar's  name  was 
duly  erected  and  opened  September  8,  the  birthday  of 
the  Virgin  Mary. 

Mechitar,  ever  alert  and  ardent,  never  abandoned  or 
lost  sight  of  his  inspiring  aim,  the  education  of  his 
countrymen.  Himself  a  born  scholar,  he  did  not  lay 
aside  his  pen  until  death  in  1749  took  it  from  his  hand. 
His  works  are  largely  theological  and  philosophical; 
but  popular  hymns,  written  while  he  was  yet  in  the  fold 
of  the  mother  Church,  are  still  sung  and  bear  witness 
to  his  poetic  skill  and  spiritual  fervor.  Establishing 
printing  presses  in  the  convent,  he  labored  with  untir- 
ing zeal  to  revive  the  high  literary  standard  of 
Armenia's  bygone  days. 

After  a  lapse  of  almost  two  centuries,  the  Mechitar- 
ists  still  bear  the  indelible  impress  of  their  founder's 
devotion  to  letters;  for,  in  accordance  with  its  orlo-inal 
aim  and  mission,  the  place  became  not  only  a  convent 
of  monotonous  ecclesiasticism,  but  an  academy  not 
unlike  that  of  the  French  Immortals,  venerable  with 
years  and  rich  in  imperishable  memories;  for  many 
rare  spirits  have  imparted  something  of  themselves  to 
these  sacred  buildings,  where  they  have  dreamed  and 
worked  and  waited,  where  they  have  endured  and  lost 
or  won.  Here,  indeed,  are  places  associated  with 
poets  and  statesmanlike  scholars,  whose  story  is  the 
best  heritage  of  the  intellect  and  literature  of  Armenia, 
for  in  them  all  the  ethical  and  spiritual  instincts  of  the 


86        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

nation  found  representation.  The  convent  is  partic- 
ularly interesting  to  modern  students  and  tourists, 
because  it  was  there  that  Byron  sojourned  for  a  time, 
deeply  interesting  himself  in  Armenian  literature  and 
in  the  learned  monks  who  were  its  expounders.  The 
room,  table,  and  chair  wiiere  he  studied  the  Armenian 
lanouaee  are  shown  to  visitors  at  the  convent.  Aside 
from  Byron,  Victor  Hugo,  Lamartine,  Henry  W. 
Longfellow,  and  other  conspicuous  lights  in  the  world 
of  letters  have  been  ardent  admirers  of  our  literature. 
Some  of  the  "Oriental  poems "  of  Victor  Hugo  are 
adaptations  from  Mugarditch  Beshiktashlian's  poems. 
Longfellow,  too,  has  rendered  a  few  Armenian  poems 
into  English  verse.  This  remarkable  establishment 
has  been  so  distinguished  for  its  eminent  services  in 
the  cause  of  morality  and  learning  that,  in  1810,  when 
a  general  order  for  the  suppression  of  all  monastic 
institutions  in  Venice  was  issued,  San  Lazaro  alone 
was  exempted  from  its  sweeping  effects.  Another 
proof  of  the  high  estimation  in  which  the  monastery 
stands  is  in  the  fact  that  the  Pope  made  it  his  custom 
to  confer  upon  each  new  abbot  of  San  Lazaro  the 
title  and  dignity  of  archbishop,  although  the  prelate 
thus  honored  had  neither  province  nor  subordinate 
clergy. 

We  must  not  forget  the  Armenian  missionaries,  who 
have  furnished  scientific  text-books  and  are  increasing 
the  number  from  time  to  time.  An  Armenian  who 
can  afford  them  may  have  as  good  a  practical,  library 
in  his  native  language  as  the  artisan  or  merchant  could 
desire.  Concerning  this  work  I  have  spoken  in  the 
chapter  on  evangelical  missions. 


ARMENIAN  LITERATURE.  87 

From  these  facts  some  interesting  conclusions  can  be 
drawn.  Through  four-fifths  of  the  Christian  era 
Armenian  literature  has  enjoyed  a  more  perfect  con- 
tinuity than  that  of  any  other  Christian  nation.  When 
Europe  was  passing  through  the  Dark  Ages  the  Chris- 
tian Armenians  of  the  Orient  were  enjoying  a  season 
of  unparalleled  intellectual  activity  and  creating  a  litera- 
ture of  no  little  value  ;  and  the  day  may  yet  come  when 
their  purest  songs  and  highest  thoughts  may  be  ranked 
among  those  classics  which  are  not  the  possession  of 
any  one  tongue  or  people,  but  have  in  them  so  much 
of  man's  heart  and  life  that  they  are  the  legacy  of  the 
race.  This  may  be  seen  in  the  poems  quoted  in  this 
chapter.  They  are  the  productions  of  various  writers 
and  of  different  centuries,  but  their  truth  and  beauty 
belong  to  no  one  age  or  clime  ;  for  the  catholicity  of 
true  sonof  is  theirs.  Armenia's  mountains,  hills,  and 
valleys,  her  birds  and  flowers,  her  kings  and  battles, 
her  thwarted  yearning  for  freedom,  even  the  broken 
heartstrings  of  her  stricken  mothers,  are  woven  into  a 
bitter-sweet  burst  of  song,  amid  whose  gladsome 
strains  sounds  of  woe  are  mingled,  sunbeams  and 
shadows,  joy  and  pain. 

POEMS  ON   NATURE. 

Nature  poetry  finds  in  spring  a  strong  incentive. 
Grim,  slothful  Winter  lingers  long,  holdinggentle  Spring 
in  his  icy  grasp.  Then  she  rises  suddenly  in  her  youth- 
ful strength,  and  snowflakes  change  to  flowers  with  a 
suddenness  that  surprises  the  stranger.  This  quick 
transition,  this    annual    resurrection,   is    the    theme  of 


88         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

many  a  bard.  Spring  poetry  is  addressed  to  the  stork, 
as  harbinger  of  the  season,  who,  when  he  comes  to 
stay,  brings  summer  with  him. 

The  ancients  declare  that  spring  was  under  the 
special  care  of  the  goddess  Amahid.  All  the  people 
joined  in  the  feast  of  Varthavar,  or  "  Rose  Blossoms." 
In  Christian  times  this  has  been  supplanted  by  the  three 
days'  festival  of  the  Transfiguration.  The  ancient 
name,  the  Feast  of  Rose  Blossoms,  indicates  the  love  of 
the  beautiful,  which  leads  to  the  true  and  can  have  its 
origin  only  in  the  good.  There  is  a  religious  halo 
about  the  very  names  of  the  Armenian  flowers.  The 
"  Fountain's  Blood  "  is  a  floral  wonder.  Was  it  the 
blood  of  righteous  Abel  that  sprang  from  the  ground 
as  this  crimson  flower  on  a  leafless  stalk,  calling  to 
God  in  its  blood-red  simplicity  for  vengeance  on  the 
murderer?  These  beauties  of  the  field  and  glen  have 
called  forth  exquisite  gems  of  thought  which  are 
treasured  to  this  day. 

Summer — the  short,  sweet,  seductive  summer  of 
Armenia — does  not  last  long  enough  to  produce  eniitd. 
This  brief,  bright  pageantry  of  blooming,  fragrant 
flowers  and  ripening  fruit  comes  quickly,  does  its  work 
in  haste ;  and  a  chill,  gloomy  winter  succeeds,  sup- 
pressing autumn  before  it  fairly  has  a  chance  to  exist. 

How  much  these  long  winters,  coupled  with  the 
utter  seclusion  of  the  Armenian  homes  far  away  from 
the  centers  of  population,  have  had  to  do  in  developing 
the  poetic  instinct,  we  can  well  surmise.  These  patri- 
archal abodes  are  snow-bound  from  October  until 
May  ;  and  from  such  retreats,  chiefly,  has  come  the  an- 
cient and  modern  literature   of  Armenia.      With  what 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  89 

poetic  fancy  the  return  of  spring  is  greeted  may  be 
seen  in  this  Httle  poem : 

Scarce  are  the  clouds'  black  shadows  -' 

Pierced  by  a  gleam  of  light, 
Scarce  have  our  fields  grown  dark  again, 

Freed  from  the  snowdrifts  white, 
When  you,  with  smiles  all  twinkling, 

Bud  forth  o'er  hill  and  vale. 
O  firstborn  leaves  of  springtime, 

Hail  to  your  beauty,  hail! 

Not  yet  to  our  cold  meadows 

Had  come  Spring's  guest  the  swallow, 
Not  yet  the  nightingale's  sweet  voice 

Had  echoed  from  the  hollow. 
When  you,  like  Joy's  bright  angels. 

Came  swift  to  hill  and  dale. 
Fresh-budded  leaves  of  springtime. 

Hail  to  your  beauty,  hail! 

Your  tender,  verdant  color, 

Thin  stems,  and  graceful  guise. 
How  sweetly  do  they  quench  the  thirst 

Of  eager,  longing  eyes! 
Afflicted  souls  at  sight  of  you 

Take  comfort  and  grow  gay. 
New-budded  leaves  of  springtime. 

All  hail  to  you  to-day! 

Come,  in  the  dark  breast  of  our  dales. 

To  shine  the  hills  between! 
Come,  o'er  our  bare  and  shivering  trees 

To  cast  a  veil  of  green! 
Come,  to  give  sad-faced  Nature 

An  aspect  blithe  and  new! 
O  earliest  leaves  of  springtime, 

All  hail,  all  hail  to  you! 


90         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Come,  to  call  up  for  newborn  spring 

A  dawn  of  roses  fair ! 
Come,  and  invite  the  breezes  light 

To  play  with  your  soft  hair! 
Say  to  the  fragrant  blossoms, 

"Oh,  haste!     Men  long  for  you!" 
Hail,  earliest  leaves  of  springtime, 

Young  leaves  so  fresh  and  new! 

Come,  come,  O  leaves,  and  with  sweet  wings 

Of  hope  from  yonder  sky 
Cover  the  sad  earth  of  the  graves 

Wherein  our  dear  ones  lie! 
Weave  o'er  the  bones  so  dear  to  us 

A  garland  wet  with  dew, 
Ye  wings  of  Hope's  bright  angels. 

Young  leaves  so  fresh  and  new.* 

The  life  of  Archbishop  Khorene  Nar-bey,  author  of 
the  above,  occupies  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  literary 
and  clerical  circles  of  our  country.  A  direct  descend- 
ant of  the  royal  family  of  Lusignan,  of  the  last  dynasty 
of  Armenian  kings;  educated  at  the  convent  of  the  Mech- 
itarists  in  Venice,  yet  early  leaving  the  Roman  for  the 
Armenian  Church  ;  a  pupil  of  Lamartine  and  a  friend 
of  Victor  Hugo  ;  he  was  poet,  theologian,  author,  orator, 
linguist,  and  also  a  diplomat  of  rare  skill.  Endowed 
with  so  many  attainments,  he  consecrated  his  powers  to 
the  welfare  of  his  countrymen  by  carrying  to  a  success- 
ful issue  many  a  delicate  diplomatic  mission,  notably 
during  the  Berlin  Congress  in  1878.  His  ardent  patri- 
otism roused  the  Turkish  government  against  him,  and 
he  died  at  Constantiiiople,  poisoned,  it  is  commonly  be- 
lieved, by  the  Sultan. 

*  Most  of  the  poems  that  appear  in  this  chapter  are  rendered  into  English  verse 
by  Miss  Alice  Stone  Blackwell. 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  91 

The  birds  of  Armenia,  like  the  flowers,  are  countless 
in  number  and  variety.  Her  poets  seldom  write  with- 
out embellishing  their  lines  with  reference  to  some  of 
their  fragrant  or  feathered  friends  of  the  field.  The 
lament  of  the  wandering  Armenian  in  Totochian's  song 
to  the  swallow  will  touch  the  heart  of  many  a  homesick 
exile : 

O  swallow,  gentle  swallow, 

Thou  lovely  bird  of  spring! 
Say,  whither  art  thou  flying 

So  swift  on  gleaming  wing? 

Fly  to  my  birthplace,  Ashdarag, 

The  spot  I  love  the  best; 
Beneath  my  father's  roof-tree, 

O  swallow,  build  thy  nest. 

There  dwells  afar  my  father, 

A  mournful  man  and  gray, 
Who  for  his  only  son's  return 

Waits  vainly,  day  by  day. 

If  thou  shouldst  chance  to  see  him, 

Greet  him  with  love  from  me  ; 
Bid  him  sit  down  and  mourn  with  tears 

His  son's  sad  destiny.    . 

In  poverty  and  loneliness, 

Tell  him  my  days  are  passed; 
My  life  is  only  half  a  life, 

My  tears  are  falling  fast. 

To  me,  amid  bright  daylight, 

The  sun  is  dark  at  noon; 
To  my  wet  eyes  at  midnight 

Sleep  comes  not,  late  or  soon. 


92         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Tell  him  that,  like  a  beauteous  flower 

Smithy  a  cruel  doom, 
Uprooted  from  my  native  soil, 

I  wither  ere  my  bloom. 

Fly  on  swift  wing,  dear  swallow, 

Across  the  quickening  earth. 
And  seek  in  fair  Armenia 

The  village  of  my  birth! 

In  the  following  stanzas,  rendered  into  English 
verse  by  the  author,  it  appears  that  the  partridge  is  a 
special  favorite : 

With  flowers  of  every  hue 
Thy  nest  is  covered  over. 
Thy  place  is  full  of  dew. 
Thou  lovest  the  sweet  odor. 

Little  partridge,  how 

Pretty,  pretty  thou! 

When  the  partridge  leaves  the  tree, 
And  chir])s  its  happy  song. 
The  world  sings  merrily. 
The  heart  forgets  its  wrong. 

Little  partridge,  how 

Pretty,  pretty  thou! 

By  all  the  birds  thou'rt  blessed. 
And  all  thy  featiiered  tribe 
To  thee  who  art  the  best 
Their  songs  of  love  ascribe. 

Little  partridge,  how 

Beautiful  art  thou! 

The  crane  is  the  harbinger  of  summer  as  the  stork 
is    of    spring,    and    has    received    his    share    of  poetic 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  03 

tribute.  To  the  Armenian  under  foreign  skies  the 
flight  of  the  crane  is  always  suggestive  of  home.  His 
thoughts  will  recall  the  poets  of  his  Oriental  father- 
land. "  Crane,  whence  comest  thou  ?  Hast  thou  no 
news  of  my  country?"  Thanks  to  modern  scientific 
research,  news  flies  faster  than  the  crane,  and  the 
Armenian  in  America  is  abreast  with  the  times  on 
the  Armenian  question,  and  has  the  news  before 
the  Armenian  resident  on  the  foothills  of  Ararat  can 
possibly  get  it. 

The  tender  regard  of  Armenians  for  the  birds  of  the 
air  has  its  origin  in  the  ancient  superstition  of  the 
transmigration  of  souls.  Among  the  ignorant  it  is  still 
believed  that  the  spirits  of  the  departed  visit  the 
scenes  of  their  youth  in  the  form  of  birds.  For  this 
reason  the  denizens  of  the  air  are  seldom  disturbed 
by  the  Armenian  peasants.  Many  of  the  poetical 
fancies  in  regard  to  them  are  born  of  the  idea  that 
they  are  the  custodians  of  the  spirits  of  departed 
friends. 

The  limpid,  laughing  waters  of  Armenia's  swift- 
descending  streams,  as  they  babble  through  the  rocky 
channels  or  bound  from  shelving  precipices  in  a  musi- 
cal cascade,  have  shared  the  poet's  fancy  with  the 
star-reflecting  blue  of  the  crystal  lake.  A  delicate 
expression  of  the  poetic  charms  of  a  mountain  torrent 
watering  fields  and  gardens  in  the  lower  valley  is  the 
following : 

Down  from  yon  distant  mountain 

The  streamlet  finds  its  way, 
And  through  the  quiet  village 

It  flows  in  eddying  play. 


94  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

A  dark  youth  left  his  doorway, 

And  sought  the  water-side, 
And,  laving  there  his  hands  and  brow, 

**  O  streamlet  sweet!  "  he  cried, 

**  Say  from  what  mountain  com'st  thou?" 

"From  yonder  mountain  cold 
Where  snow  on  snow  lies  sleeping. 

The  new  snow  on  the  old." 

"  Unto  what  river,  tell  me. 
Fair  streamlet,  dost  thou  flow?" 

**  I  flow  unto  that  river 

Where  clustering  violets  grow." 

"Sweet  streamlet,  to  what  vineyard. 

Say,  dost  thou  take  thy  way?" 
"The  vineyard  where  the  vine-dresser 

Is  at  his  work  to-day." 

"What  plant  there  wilt  thou  water?" 

"  The  plant  upon  whose  roots 
The  lambs  feed,  where  the  wind-flower  blooms, 

And  orchards  bear  sweet  fruits." 

"What  garden  wilt  thou  visit, 

O  water  cool  and  fleet  ?  " 
"  The  garden  where  the  nightingale 

Sings  tenderly  and  sweet." 

"  Into  what  fountain  flowest  thou?  " 

"  The  fountain  to  whose  brink 
Thy  love  comes  down  at  morn  and  eve, 

And  bends  her  face  to  drink. 

"There  shall  I  meet  the  maiden 

Who  is  to  be  thy  bride, 
And  kiss  her  chin,  and  with  her  love 

My  soul  be  satisfied." 


THE   SCENE   OF   ARMENIAN   POETS     FANCY. 


96         THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 


BALLAD  POETRY. 

To  ballad  poetry  the  Armenian  singer  frequently 
turns.  Many  examples  of  this  branch  of  the  art  are 
connected  with  the  famous  Lake  Van,  around  which 
countless  traditions  have  gathered.  An  excellent 
example  of  this  class  of  poetry  is  given  below  : 

We  sailed  in  the  ship  from  Aghthamar. 
We  directed  our  ship  toward  Avan; 
When  we  arrived  before  Vosdan 
We  saw  the  dark  sun  of  the  dark  day. 

Dull  clouds  covered  the  sky, 
Obscuring  at  once  stars  and  moon; 
The  winds  blew  fiercely, 
And  took  from  my  eyes  land  and  home. 

Thundered  the  heaven,  thundered  the  earth, 
The  waters  of  the  blue  sea  arose; 
On  every  side  the  heavens  shot  forth  fire; 
Black  terror  invaded  my  heart. 

There  is  the  sky,  but  the  earth  is  not  seen, 
There  is  the  earth,  but  the  sun  is  not  seen, 
The  waves  come  like  mountains 
And  open  before  me  a  deep  abyss. 

O  see,  if  thou  lovest  thy  God, 

Have  pity  on  me,  forlorn  and  wretched; 

Take  not  from  me  my  sweet  sun. 

And  betray  me  not  to  fiinty-hearted  Death. 

Pity,  O  sea,  O  terrible  sea! 

Give  me  not  up  to  the  cold  winds: 

My  tears  implore  thee 

And  the  thousand  sorrows  of  my  heart.    .    , 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  97 

The  savage  sea  has  no  pity! 

It  hears  not  the  plaintive  voice  of  my  broken  heart; 

The  blood  freezes  in  my  veins, 

Black  night  descends  upon  my  eyes.    .    . 

Go  tell  to  my  mother 
To  sit  and  weep  for  her  darkened  son; 
That  Hovhannes  was  the  prey  of  the  sea, 
The  sun  of  the  young  man  is  set! 


RELIGIOUS    POEMS. 

This  little  poem  of  the  Christ-child  comes  to  us 
from  St.  Gregory  of  Narek,  who  lived  in  the  tenth 
century  : 

"  The  lips  of  the  Christ-child  are  like  two  twin  leaves; 
They  let  roses  fall  when  he  smiles  tenderly. 
The  tears  of  the  Christ-child  are  pearls  when  he  grieves; 
The  eyes  of  the  Christ-child  are  deep  as  the  sea. 
Like  pomegranate  grains  are  the  dimples  he  hath. 
And  clustering  lilies  spring  up  in  his  path." 

There  is  a  sad  Armenian  elegy  on  Adam's  expul- 
sion from  Paradise,  in  theme  not  unlike  portions  of 
Milton's  •'  Paradise  Lost."  But  our  poets  have 
seldom  wandered  in  this  direction.  Their  themes  are 
of  the  heart,  varying,  with  the  fortunes  of  the  people, 
from  a  tone  of  joyful  victory  to  that  of  subdued 
melancholy. 

Armenian  literature  is  imbued  with  a  profound  faith 
in  the  final  justice  of  God,  whicli  finds  no  parallel  except 
in  the  literature  of  the  Hebrew  race.  A  literal  transla- 
tion of  the  following  stanza,  though  sadly  marring  its 
artistic  effect,  does  not  destroy  the  poetic  thought  and 


9^        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

religious    hope   which   save   from   despair   a   bereaved 
mother  grieving  for  her  child  : 

**  I  gaze  and  weep,  mother  of  my  boy, 

I  say  alas!   and  woe  is  me! 
What  will  become  of  wretched  me: 

I  have  seen  my  golden  son  dead! 
They  seized  that  fragrant  rose 

Of  my  breast,  and  my  soul  fainted  away; 
They  let  that  beautiful  golden  dove 

Fly  away,  and  my  heart  was  wounded. 
The  falcon  I!)eath  seized 

My  dear  and  sweet-voiced  turtle  dove  and  wounded  me. 
They  took  my  sweet-toned  little  lark 

And  flew  away  through  the  skies! 
Before  my  eyes  they  sent  the  hail 

On  my  flowering  green  pomegranate, 
My  rosy  apple  on  the  tree. 

Which  gives  fragrance  among  the  leaves. 
They  shook  my  flourishing  beautiful  almond  tree 

And  left  me  without  fruit; 
Beating  it,  they  threw  it  on  the  ground 

And  trod  it  under  foot  into  the  earth  of  the  grave. 
What  will  become  of  wretched  me! 

Many  sorrows  surrounded  me. 
O  my  God,  receive  the  soul  of  my  little  one 
And  place  him  at  rest  in  Thy  bright  heaven." 

The  simple  pathos  and  exquisite  conception  of  bird- 
and-flower  analogies  by  the  rural  bards  are  touchingly 
illustrated  in  the  above  selection. 

LOVE    POEMS. 

The  Eastern  nations  are  noted  for  the  delicate  senti- 
ment and  profuse  imagery  of  their  love  poems,  and  in 
this  Armenia  is  not  lacking.  Some  of  her  poets  are 
worthy  to   be  ranked  with   the  singers  of  any  nation. 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  99 

One  of  these,  Bedros  Turian,  resembles  Robert  Burns 
in  some  respects.  Yet  there  are  no  contradictory 
traits  in  the  character  of  the  Armenian  poet.  Earth's 
vile  passions  never  marred  his  pure  love  and  noble 
aspirations  after  a  higher  life.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
blacksmith  in  Constantinople,  and  died  of  consumption 
in  1 87 1,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-one.  He  left  a  num- 
ber of  dramas  and  poems  that  enjoy  a  great  popu- 
larity among  my  countrymen,  though  his  fame  came 
only  after  his  death,  when  it  was  too  late  to  give  him 
the  recognition  he  so  vainly  desired  in  life.  Indeed, 
his  life  was  full  of  adversity  and  sadness,  and  it  appears 
that  the  very  hardships  which  hastened  his  death  gave 
power  to  his  poetic  genius  in  fathoming  the  depths  of 
the  tempest-tossed  ocean  of  human  tragedy.  Poverty- 
stricken  beyond  endurance,  helpless,  friendless,  and 
hopeless,  sick  and  alone,  disappointed  in  love,  he 
touched  the  silvery  strings  of  his  lyre,  bringing  out  soft, 
floating  melodies  full  of  sweet  melancholy,  misty  sad- 
ness, and  fainting  loneliness.  A  few  days  before  his 
death,  amid  the  soft  rustle  of  trees  so  like  the  gentle 
whispering  of  lovers,  as  his  wandering  steps  lingered 
beside  a  little  lake,  his  impassioned  heart  burst  forth  in 
this  poetic  strain  : 

Why  dost  thou  lie  in  hushed  surprise, 

Thou  little  lonely  mere? 
Did  some  fair  woman  wistfully 

Gaze  in  thy  mirror  clear? 

Or  are  thy  waters  calm  and  still 

Admiring-  the  blue  sky, 
Where  shining  cloudlets,  like  thy  foam, 

Are  drifting  softly  by? 


lOO 


THE   TURK   AND   THE    LAND    OF    HAIG. 

Sad  little  lake,  let  us  be  friends! 

I,  too,  am  desolate; 
I,  too,  would  fain,  beneath  the  sky, 

In  silence  meditate. 

As  many  thoughts  are  in  my  mind 
As  wavelets  o'er  thee  roam; 

As  many  wounds  are  in  my  heart 
As  thou  hast  flakes  of  foam. 


THE    LITTLE    LAKE. 


But  if  heaven's  constellations  all 
Should  drop  into  thy  breast. 

Thou  still  wouldst  not  be  like  my  soul 

A  flame-sea  without  rest. 


There,  when  the  air  and  thou  are  calm, 
The  clouds  let  fall  no  showers; 

The  stars  that  rise  there  do  not  set, 
And  fadeless  are  the  flowers. 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  lOI 

Thou  art  my  queen,  O  little  lake! 

For  e'en  when  ripples  thrill 
Thy  surface,  in  thy  quivering  depths 

Thou  hold'st  me,  trembling,  still. 

Full  many  have  rejected  me: 

"  What  has  he  but  his  lyre? 
*'  He  trembles,  and  his  face  is  pale; 

His  life  must  soon  expire!  " 

None  s.aid,  *  Poor  child,  why  pines  he  thus? 

If  he  beloved  should  be, 
Haply  he  might  not  die,  but  live, 

Live  and  grow  fair  to  see.' 

None  sought  the  boy's  sad  heart  to  read, 

Nor  in  its  depths  to  look. 
They  would  have  found  it  was  a  fire, 

And  not  a  printed  book! 

Nay,  ashes  now!  a  memory! 

Grow  stormy,  little  mere. 
For  a  despairing  man  has  gazed 

Into  thy  waters  clear! 

The  following  lament  over  his  early  death  serves  to 
bring  out  his  intense  patriotism  : 

To  thirst  with  sacred  longings. 

And  find  the  springs  all  dry, 
And  in  my  flower  to  fade — not  this 

The  grief  for  which  I  sigh. 

Ere  yet  my  cold,  pale  brow  has  been 

Warmed  by  an  ardent  kiss, 
To  rest  it  on  a  couch  of  earth — 

My  sorrow  is  not  this. 


I02        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Ere  I  embrace  a  live  bouquet 

Of  beauty,  smiles,  and  fire, 
The  cold  grave  to  embrace — not  this 

Can  bitter  grief  inspire. 

Ere  a  sweet,  dreamless  sleep  has  lulled 

My  tempest-beaten  brain. 
To  slumber  in  a  earthy  bed — 

Ah,  this  is  not  my  pain. 

My  country  is  forlorn,  a  branch 

Withered  on  life's  great  tree; 
To  die  unknown,  ere  succoring  her — 

This  only  grieveth  me. 

The  two  following,  by  the  same  author,  embody  the 
thoughts  of  lovers  the  world  over  : 


& 


Were  not  the  rose's  hue  like  that  which  glows 
On  her  soft  cheek,  who  would  esteem  the  rose? 

Were  not  the  tints  of  heaven  like  those  that  lie 
In  her  blue  eyes,  whose  gaze  would  seek  the  sky? 

Were  not  the  maiden  innocent  and  fair. 

How  would  men  learn  to  turn  to  God  in  prayer? 


"  She  was  alone.     I  brought  a  gift — 
A  rose,  surpassing  fair; 
And  when  she  took  it  from  my  hand 
She  blushed  with  pleasure  there. 

"  Compared  with  her,  how  poor  and  pale 
The  red  rose  seemed  to  be! 
My  gift  was  nothing  to  the  kiss 
My  lady  gave  to  me." 


ARMENIAN  LITERATURE.  I03 

But  the  dearest  and  most  frequent  theme  of  the 
Armenian  poet  is  his  country — her  beauty  and  her 
woes,  the  bravery  of  her  sons  and  their  ceaseless 
struggle  for  freedom  from  tyranny.  These  ideas  are 
found  in  all  classes  of  poems,  from  the  lullaby  the 
mother  sings  soft  and  sweet  to  hush  the  babe,  to  the 
most  stirring  songs  of  liberty  and  the  fiercest  notes  of 
war.  These  ideas  are  illustrated  in  the  following 
poems.  The  first,  entitled  "  We  Are  Brothers,"  is  the 
work  of  Professor  Mugurditch  Beshiktashlian,  a 
Roman  Catholic  Armenian  who  was  born  in  1829  and 
was  educated  at  the  famous  Convent  Mechitarist.  He 
died  in  1868,  and  on  his  gravestone  were  carved  tlie  last 
lines  of  this,  his  song  : 

From  glorious  Nature's  myriad  tongues, 
Tiiough  songs  be  breathed  by  lips  of  love, 

And  though  the  maiden's  fingers  fair 
Across  the  thrilling  harp-strings  rove, 

Of  all  earth's  sounds,  there  is  no  other 

So  lovely  as  the  name  of  brother. 

Clasp  hands,  for  we  are  brothers  dear, 

Of  old  by  tempest  rent  apart; 
The  dark  designs  of  cruel  Fate 

Shall  fail,  when  heart  is  joined  to  heart. 
What  sound,  beneath  the  stars  aflame, 
So  lovely  as  a  brother's  name? 

And  when  our  ancient  Mother-land 

Beholds  her  children  side  by  side. 
The  dews  of  joyful  tears  shall  heal 

Her  heart's  sad  wounds,  so  deep  and  wide. 
What  sound,  beneath  the  stars  aflame. 
So  lovely  as  a  brother's  name? 


I04  THE   TURK   AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

We  wept  together  in  the  past; 

Let  us  unite  in  harmony 

And  blend  again  our  tears,  our  joys; 

So  shall  our  efforts  fruitful  be. 
What  sound,  beneath  the  stars  aflame, 
So  lovely  as  a  brother's  name? 

Together  let  us  work  and  strive, 
Together  sow,  with  toil  and  pain, 

The  seed  that  shall,  with  harvest  blest, 
Make  bright  Armenia's  fields  again. 

What  sound,  beneath  the  stars  aflame, 

So. lovely  as  a  brother's  name? 

Another  of  the  most  brilliant  lights  in  our  modern 
literature  is  Raphael  Patkanian.  He  is  a  poet  beloved 
by  the  muses,  and  is  known  and  admired  by  Armenians 
everywhere.  His  work  is  peculiar  yet  refined,  melo- 
dious and  tender  ;  and,  again,  loud  and  stormy,  sparkling 
with  artful  rhymes  and  measures,  and  ever  throwing  a 
magical  enchantment  and  melancholy  sadness  over 
existence.  Many  of  his  poems  were  written  during  the 
Turco-Russian  war,  when  the  Armenians  in  Russia 
cherished  bright  hopes  for  the  deliverance  of  Armenia 
from  the  Turkish  yoke.  This  poet  was  born  in  1830 
in  southern  Russia.  While  at  the  University  of 
Moscow  he  assembled  his  Armenian  fellow-students 
and  organized  a  literary  club  among  them.  Patkanian 
died  in  1892,  after  forty-two  years  of  continuous  activity 
as  an  educator,  journalist,  and  author.  The  following 
poem,  entitled  "  Cradle  Song,"  is  a  specimen  of  his  work  : 

Nightingale,  oh,  leave  our  garden. 
Where  soft  dews  the  blossoms  steep; 

With  thy  litanies  melodious 
Come  and  sing  my  son  to  sleep! 


w  f^- 


KArHAEI.   TATKANIAN. 


I06  THE   TURK   AND    THE   LAND    OF   HAIG. 

Nay,  he  sleeps  not  for  thy  chanting, 
And  his  weeping  hath  not  ceased. 

Come  not,  nightingale!     My  darling 
Does  not  wish  to  be  a  priest. 

O  thou  thievish,  clever  jackdaw, 

That  in  coin  findest  thy  joy, 
With  thy  tales  of  gold  and  profit 

Come  and  soothe  my  wailing  boy! 
Nay,  thy  chatter  does  not  lull  him, 

And  his  crying  is  not  stayed. 
Come  not,  jackdaw!  for  my  darling 

Will  not  choose  the  merchant's  trade. 

Wild  dove,  leave  the  fields  and  pastures 

Where  thou  grievest  all  day  long; 
Come  and  bring  my  boy  sweet  slumber 

With  thy  melancholy  song! 
Still  he  weeps.      Nay,  come  not  hither. 

Plaintive  songster,  for  I  see 
That  he  loves  not  lamentations, 

And  no  mourner  will  he  be. 

Leave  thy  chase,  brave-hearted  falcon! 

Haply  he  thy  song  would  hear. 
And  the  boy  lay  hushed  and  slumbered, 

With  the  war-notes  in  his  ear. 

We  cannot  more  fittingly  close  this  chapter  than  by 
quoting  the  jewel  of  our  songs  of  liberty.  Its  author, 
Professor  Michael  Ghazarian  Nalbandian,  was  born  in 
Russian  Armenia  in  1830.  After  graduating  from  the 
University  of  St.  Petersburg  he  led  an  active  life  as  an 
educator,  author,  and  editor.  Being  suspected  by  the 
Russian  government,  on  account  of  his  political 
opinions,  he  was  imprisoned  for  three  years  and  then 
exiled  to  the   province  of  Sarakov,  where  he  died,  in 


ARMENIAN   LITERATURE.  107 

1866,    of  lung  disease  brought  on   by    the    rigors    of 
prison  life. 

In  Russia  it  is  forbidden  to  possess  Nalbandian's 
portrait,  yet  pictures  of  him,  with  his  poem  on 
"  Liberty,"  are  circulated  secretly  among  his  country- 
men. 

When  God,  who  is  forever  free, 

Breathed  life  into  my  earthly  frame, — 
From  that  first  day,  by  His  free  will 

When  I  a  living  soul  became, — 
A  babe  upon  my  mother's  breast. 

Ere  power  of  speech  was  given  to  me, 
Even  then  I  stretched  my  feeble  arms 

Forth  to  embrace  thee.  Liberty! 

Wrapped  round  with  many  swaddling  bands, 

All  night  I  did  not  cease  to  weep. 
And  in  the  cradle,  restless  still. 

My  cries  disturbed  my  mother's  sleep. 
**0  mother!'  in  my  heart  I  prayed, 

**  Unbind  my  arms  and  leave  me  free!  " 
And  even  from  that  hour  I  vowed 

To  love  thee  ever,  Liberty! 

When  first  my  faltering  tongue  was  freed, 

And  when  my  parents'  hearts  were  stirred 
With  thrilling  joy,  to  hear  their  son 

Pronounce  his  first  clear-spoken  word, 
"  Papa,  Mamma,"  as  children  use, 

Were  not  the  names  first  said  by  me; 
The  first  word  on  my  childish  lips 

Was  thy  great  name,  O  Liberty! 

"Liberty!"  answered  from  on  high 

The  sovereign  voice  of  Destiny; 
"Wilt  thou  enroll  thyself  henceforth 

A  soldier  true  of  Liberty? 


I08        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

The  path  is  thorny  all  the  way, 
And  many  trials  wait  for  thee; 

Too  strait  and  narrow  is  this  world 
For  him  who  loveth  Liberty." 

"  Freedom!  "  I  answered;  "  on  my  head 

Let  fire  descend  and  thunder  burst; 
Let  foes  against  my  life  conspire, 

Let  all  who  hate  thee  do  their  worst: 
I  will  be  true  to  thee  till  death; 

Yea,  even  upon  the  gallows  tree 
The  last  breath  of  a  death  of  shame 

Shall  shout  thy  name,  O  Liberty!  " 


THE    ARMENIAN    CHURCH. 


"The  Armenians  may  justly  claim  to  be  the  oldest  Christian 
nation  in  the  world." — H.  B.  Tristram,  D.  U.,  LL.  D.,  F.  R.  S., 
Canon  of  Durham,  England. 

PREHISTORIC    RELIGION    IN    ARMENIA. 

ACCORDING  to  the  testimony  of  the  Scriptures, 
after  the  resting  of  the  ark  "  upon  the  mountains 
of  Ararat,"  Noah  offered  burnt  offerings  upon  the  altar. 
Since  these  mountains  are  in  our  central  province, 
Armenia  may  be  said  to  be  the  earliest  home  of  divine 
worship,  and  from  here  the  patriarchal  monotheism 
was  transmitted  to  Noah's  descendants.  In  the  patri- 
archal observance  of  religfion  the  father  was  the  hieh 
priest  of  the  family,  officiating  daily  at  the  rude  family 
altar.  He  was  regarded  with  a  peculiar  reverence 
which  we  might  well  wish  to  see  restored  in  many  a 
modern    home. 

The  traditions  of  Asia  Minor  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  pure  monotheism  was  the  prehistoric  religion  of 
the  Armenians,  as  it  was  the  primitive  religion  of  all 
other  Aryans.  We  cannoi:,  however,  positively  deter- 
mine the  duration  of  that  pure  religion  in  Armenia. 
By  degrees,  through  the  influence  of  idolatrous  neigh- 
bors, the  people  embraced  polytheism  of  the  Assyro- 
Babylonian  type.  Our  cuneiform  inscriptions  give  us 
many  details  of  the  names  of  the  deities  and  the  regu- 
lations for  daily  sacrifice. 

109 


no        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

With  the  Supremacy  of  the  Medo-Persian  Empire, 
there  arose -in  western  Asia  the  duaHstic  religion  of 
Zoroaster,  teaching  that  there  are  two  supernatural 
beings — Ormazd,*  the  creator  and  preserver  of  all 
things  good,  and  Ahriman,  the  source  of  evil  and 
mischief.  These  rival  gods,  having  in  command  good 
and  evil  spirits,  were  in  perpetual  strife.  Fire,  which 
was  the  personification  of  Ormazd's  son,  became  the 
supreme  object  of  worship.  This  was  the  religion  of 
the  Armenians  from  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh 
century  b.  c.  until  the  introduction  of  Christianity. 

INTRODUCTION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

The  Armenian  Church  should  be  of  interest  to  every 
Christian  of  every  country,  because  of  its  associations 
with  early  Christianity.  It  should  be  a  delight  to  trace 
down  the  centuries  the  fortunes  and  misfortunes  of  a 
church  founded  by  the  first  disciples  of  our  Saviour. 

Cast  a  glance  at  the  condition  of  the  Eastern  World 
at  the  time  of  Christ's  advent.  When  Zoroastrianism 
was  multiplying  its  gods  and  at  the  same  time  multi- 
plying vice  and  immorality,  when  the  ancient  Baby- 
lonians were  in  eager  endeavor  to  keep  their  old, 
dying  Sabaism  alive,  when  many  branches  of  heathen- 
ism were  contemplating  the  manufacture  of  some  new 
and  better  gods,  when  even  the  sacred  religion  of  the 
Jews  had  fallen  into  formalism  ;  in  a  word,  when  the 
dark  and  threatening  clouds  of  strife  and  controversy 
had  overcast  the  Oriental  sky,  and  the  people  were 
blundering  in  the  darkness  of   superstition  and  igno- 

*  Ormazd  of  the  Persians  is  the  same  as  Armazt  of  the  Armenians  and  Jupiter 
of  the  Greeks. 


THE   ARMENIAN   CHURCH.  m 

ranee,  then  rose  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  to  illumine 
the  whole  world,  bearing  in  its  radiance  that  angelic 
benediction,  "  Peace  on  earth,  good  will  toward  men." 

The  cherished  tradition  of  the  Armenian  people  is 
that  during  the  reign  of  our  King  Abgar  of  Edessa, 
Bartholomew,  one  of  the  Twelve,  and  Thaddeus,  one 
of  the  Seventy,  went  about  preaching  the  gospel  in 
Armenia.  As  a  result  of  their  faithful  labors  and  the 
power  of  the  new  gospel  they  proclaimed,  the  king 
and  the  royal  family  were  converted  and  baptized  in 
the  river  Euphrates,  and,  following  their  example,  the 
whole  nation  turned  from  idolatry  to  the  true  God. 
The  conversion,  however,  proved  transient,  and  a  short 
time  after  the  death  of  Abgar  the  nation  relapsed  into 
its  former  religion. 

It  was  reserved  for  St.  Gregory,  a  prince  of  the 
Arshagoonian  dynasty,  a  man  mighty  in  the  Lord,  to 
turn  the  erring  people  back  to  Christian  faith  and 
worship.  And  with  his  life  and  work  the  history  of 
the  Armenian  Church  emerges  from  the  mists  of  tradi- 
tion and  comes  out  into  the  clear  light  of  history. 
This  learned  man  was  sent  by  Tiridates  (Durtad)  to 
the  Greek  bishop  Leontius  of  Caesarea  for  ordination  ; 
and  under  the  influence  of  his  preaching  the  king 
himself  embraced  Christianity,  and  the  people  began 
once  more  to  worship  God,  in  spirit  and  in  truth  (302 
A.  D.).  From  this  period  to  the  present  day  the  faith  of 
Jesus  Christ  has  been  the  faith  of  the  Armenian  people. 

Tiridates  bestowed  on  his  people  the  imperishable 
honor  of  being  the  first  nation  to  have  a  Christian 
ruler.  The  baptism  of  this  Armenian  king  and  his 
court  into  the  Christian  Church  antedates  that  of  Con- 


112        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

stantine  ten  years.  Commonly  the  latter  is  referred 
to  as  the  first  Christian  emperor,  through  paucity  of 
information  on  Armenian  history  in  the  libraries  of 
Europe  and  America. 

With  Christianity  came  a  quickening  of  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  the  people,  and  the  century  following 
was  the  golden  age  of  Armenian  literature.  Schools 
were  established  in  every  part  of  the  country,  and  as 
a  crowning  triumph  the  Bible  was  translated  into  the 
Armenian  language  in  410  a.  d.  Our  bishops  sat  in 
all  early  councils  of  the  one  common  Christian  Church, 
catholic  in  spirit,  liberal   in   doctrine  and  government. 

THE    STRUGGLE    IN    THE    FIFTH    CENTURY. 

It  was  not  without  one  final  struggle  that  Zoroas- 
trianism  gave  place  to  the  incipient  Church.  In  the 
fifth  century  the  time  came  once  more  when  the  Persian 
conquerors  offered  as  an  alternative  religious  sub- 
mission or  annihilation  by  the  sword.  It  was  a  most 
critical  moment.  They  must  wade  through  a  carnage 
of  death  to  religious  freedom,  or  desert  the  pure  reli- 
gion of  their  fathers.  "Christian  homes,  or  Christian 
graves,"  was  the  unanimous  watchword  that  echoed 
from  the  Armenian  ranks, 

"  Her  head  was  crowned  with  flowers, 
Her  feet  were  bathed  with  spray. 
Hers  were  the  lands  of  Eden, 
The  cradle  of  our  race. 

**  But  then  upon  her  borders, 

Shouted  the  Persian  horde; 
*  Fall  down  and  worship  fire, 
Or  perish  by  the  sword.' 


THE  ARMENIAN  CHURCH.  II3 

•'Then  up  sprang  Armenia 

And  raised  her  voice  on  high, 
And  back  to  haughty  Persia 
Rang  loud  the  warlike  cry: 

"  '  I  will  not  be  a  heathen, 
I  will  not  be  a  slave; 
If  I  cannot  have  a  Christian's  home 
I'll  find  a  Christian's  grave.'" 

Men,  women,  children,  all  stood  on  the  battleground 
in  defense  of  their  faith.  One  universal  resolution 
prevailed  :  "  From  this  belief  no  one  can  move  us, 
neither  angels  nor  men,  neither  fire  nor  sword,  nor 
water,  nor  any  tortures."  In  that  vast  throng  of  clergy 
and  laity  Prince  Vartan  Mamigonian,  the  valiant  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  Christian  host,  lifted  his  eloquent 
voice  in  a  thrilling  exhortation.  "I  entreat  you,  my 
brave  companions,"  said  he,  "  fear  not  the  number  of 
the  heathen,  withdraw  not  your  necks  from  the  terrible 
sword  of  a  mortal  man.  That  the  Lord  may  give  the 
victor)'  into  our  hands,  that  we  may  annihilate  their 
power  and  lift  on  high  the  standard  of  truth." 

In  the  morning,  with  the  clash  of  arms,  the  army  of 
the  Persians  was  advancing.  No  time  could  be  lost ; 
the  decisive  battle  was  soon  on  !  After  partaking  of 
the  Holy  Communion,  the  Armenians  marched  on  with 
brave  hearts  and  with  these  words  on  their  lips  : 
"  May  our  death  be  like  the  death  of  the  just,  and  may 
the  shedding  of  our  blood  resemble  the  blood-shedding 
of  the  prophets !  May  God  look  in  mercy  on  our 
voluntary  self-ofTering,  and  may  he  not  deliver  the 
Church  into  the  hands  of  the  heathen!"  The  battle 
raged    furiously.       Never     fought     men    with    greater 


LEGENDARY    PORTRAIT    OF    VARTAN    MAMIGOMAN. 


THE  ARMENIAN  CHURCH.  I15 

heroism.  Thougli  few  in  number,  and  though  their 
noble  commander  was  first  among  the  slain,  the  courage 
of  the  determined  heroes  of  the  Cross  increased  until 
they  shook  the  Persian  throne  to  its  foundation  ;  and 
the  Persian  monarch,  retreating  in  confusion,  sought 
compromise,  granting  religious  liberty.  This  was  the 
last  of  Zoroastrianism,  and  from  this  blow  it  never 
recovered. 

SEPARATION    FROM    THE    CATHOLIC    CHURCH. 

It  was  these  persecutions  which  we  have  just  de- 
scribed that  prevented  Armenia's  representation  in  the 
fourth  Ecumenical  Council  of  Chalcedon,  at  which 
Eutyches  was  condemned  for  his  heresy  relating  to  the 
person  of  Christ.  Our  Church  reserved  its  decision, 
and  was  generally  supposed  to  have  indorsed  the  her- 
esy ;  but  this  was  by  no  means  the  case.  Owing  to 
the  poverty  of  our  languages  in  theological  terms,  we 
had  at  that  time  but  one  word  for  "nature"  and 
"person";  consequently  the  declaration  of  the  council 
that  Christ  possessed  two  natures  in  one  person  was 
unintelligible  to  the  Armenian  Church.  They  had  no 
language  in  which  to  express  it.  In  451,  therefore,  this 
doctrine  was  formally  annulled  by  our  patriarch  in 
full  synod,  an  act  which  resulted  in  the  separation  of 
the  Armenian  from  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches, 
Documentary  evidence  is  not  wanting  to  show  that  the 
Armenian  Church  was  essentially  orthodox  at  that  time 
and  has  ever  been  so.  Her  indifference  to  theological 
discussion  and  her  traditional  reverence  for  antiquity, 
coupled  with  a  rooted  aversion  to  rationalism  and 
skepticism,  have  preserved  this  Church  from  the  con- 


Il6        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

fusion  in  which  theological  controversy  has  involved  all 
the  Eastern  churches.  These  facts  are  not  generally 
recognized  by  European  and  American  historians,  who 
have  too  often  relied  on  bigoted  Latin  and  Greek 
sources  for  their  information.  It  was  the  attitude  of 
the  Armenian  Church  in  standings  aloof  from  the 
indorsement  of  the  Couiicil  of  Chalcedon  which 
secured  its  independence  and  prevented  it  from  being 
absorbed  into  the  Greek  and  Roman  hierarchies. 


RELATIONS    TO    ROME. 

For  many  centuries  the  Church  suffered  the  meddle- 
some interference  of  the  Pope  at  Rome,  who  tried  to 
place  it  in  subordination  to  the  papal  power.  Many 
apostatized  to  Rome  (notably  since  the  Council  of 
Florence,  1439  ^-  ^O'  pei'hpps  in  the  hope  of  better 
protection  from  a  stronger  and  more  dominant  organi- 
zation. The  superior  scliools  of  the  Jesuits  also 
undoubtedly  attracted  a  large  number  from  the  national 
Church.  Nor  is  this  all.  Much  of  the  superstition  of 
the  Greek  Church  has  crept  in  and  has  exerted  a 
pernicious  influence  on  the  national  religion,  robbing 
it  of  its  pristine  purity  and  simplicity.  In  the  twelfth 
century  Merses  Lambronasses,  a  celebrated  Armenian 
orator,  in  a  masterly  speech,  advocated  the  union  of  the 
two  churches.  The  laity  and  clergy,  however,  unani- 
mously rejected  the  idea,  feeling  that  it  threatened 
their  independence.  Moreover,  the  doctrines  and 
usages  of  the  two  churches  differ  widely  in.  many  par- 
ticulars. In  particular  it  should  be  observed  that,  while 
the  Armenian  Church  claims  to   be  orthodox,  it  does 


Il8  THE  TURK  AND   THE  LAND   OF  HAIG. 

not  claim  to  be  the  only  orthodox  church,  and  does  not 
deny  communion  to  the  members  of  the  Greek  and 
Roman  cliurches.  The  Armenian  Church  is  liberal, 
while  the  Greek  is  exclusive  in  the  extreme. 

Whether  owning  allegiance  to   Rome,  a  convert  to 
the  evangelical    missions,  or   yet  withrn  the  fold  of  the 
native  Church,    the  Armenian  Christian    still  esteems 
Etchmiadzin  the  most  sacred  shrine  of  national  adora- 
tion.     Most  ancient  of  monastic  foundations,  and   the 
patriarchal  throne  of  Armenia  throughout  all  Christian 
ages,  there  is  no  shrine  so  interwoven  with  Armenia's 
national    memories.      Here  is  the   first   St.    Gregory's 
church,  traditionally   founded  on  a  spot  where   Christ 
descended  (as its  name  implies,  etch  meaning  "descent," 
and  miadzin  "only-begotten").     Tiie  Armenians  believe 
that  this  famous   shrine,   at  the   foot  of    Mt.    Ararat, 
stands    on     the    site   of    the    first     Armenian     church 
of   Thaddeus  the    Apostle,   which   was    erected   a.    d. 
40.     They  also  believe  that  Thaddeus  was    martyred  . 
on   a   stone  near    by,   and    that    his    bones    were  sub- 
sequently  removed    and  buried   in    the   present  build- 
ing, which  was   erected  in  a.  d.  650.       It  is  cuneiform 
in  shape  and  of  colossal  size,  and  is  made  of  blocks  of 
hewn  stone.      Its  erection  consumed  twenty  years,  and 
new   parts  have  since   been   added  at  different  times. 
Above  the  entrance  are  figures  of  the  twelve  Apostles 
and  seven  deacons  in  bas-relief,  surrounded  by  angels 
and    cherubim.      Its   interior    is  elaborately    decorated 
with  the  ornaments  usual  in   Armenian  places  of  wor- 
ship and  with  inscriptions  and   many  memorial  tablets 
of  ancient  date. 


THE  ARMENIAN  CHURCH.  II9 

THE  CATHOLICOS. 

The  organization  of  the  Armenian  Church  is  rep- 
resentative. Of  all  the  clerical  ofificers  of  the  Church 
the  Catholicos  ranks  highest,  the  Catholicos  at  Etch- 
miadzin  being  supreme.  The  present  Catholicos  is  Rt. 
Rev.  Migrditch  Khirimian.  This  great  and  venerable 
man  of  God,  who  sits  to-day  upon  the  patriarchal 
throne  of  St.  Gregory  the  Illuminator,  is  held  in  the 
same  esteem  by  the  Armenians  throughout  the  world 
as  Gladstone  by  the  English  and  the  Christian  world 
at  large.  He  is  universally  known  among  our  people 
2iS  Hairig — dear  little  father.  Born  at  Van  in  1820, 
and  educated  at  the  monasteries  of  Lim  and  Gdootz 
upon  the  islands  of  Lake  Van,  his  early  life  was  devoted 
to  educational  and  literary  pursuits.  In  1854,  having 
taken  holy  orders,  he  was  appointed  superior  of  Varak 
Monastery  near  Van,  where  he  founded  a  school  and 
set  up  a  printing  press — the  first,  and  indeed  the  last, 
in  that  extensive  domain.  He  established  a  monthly 
review,  a  library,  and  a  museum.  In  i860,  after  having 
traveled  in  Caucasus  two  years,  he  was  made  a 
superior  in  the  historic  monastery  of  St.  Garabed  of 
Moush.  There,  too,  his  extraordinary  talents  found 
ample  scope  in  making  the  sadly  neglected  and  dark- 
ened interior  of  Armenia  a  center  of  light  and  culture. 
In  1868  he  was  consecrated  bishop,  and  the  following 
year  he  was  elected  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  to  the 
enthusiastic  satisfaction  of  the  Armenians. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  his  activities,  his  stanch 
patriotism  had  made  him  persofia  noii  grata  to  the 
Turkish  government.     Soon  after  his  installation,  upon 


I20        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

the  first  audience  with  the  Sultan,  he  so  ardently  and 
boldly  championed  the  cause  of  his  oppressed  flock  that 
he  had  to  resign  his  office  in  1873.  Although  retiring 
from  the  patriarchate,  he  did  not  relinquish  his  patri- 
otism. In  1878,  at  the  head  of  the  Armenian  deputa- 
tion, he  pleaded  the  cause  of  his  oppressed  fellow-Chris- 
tians at  the  Berlin  Congress  ;  and,  as  a  result,  the  6ist 
article,  a  clause  looking  to  the  amelioration  of  the  exist- 
ing condition,  was  inserted.  In  the  following  year  we 
find  this  saintly  man  in  the  district  of  Van,  saving  people 
of  all  creeds  and  races  from  a  destructive  famine.  In 
1885,  ^vhile  he  was  engaged  in  Armenia  in  educational 
work  and  other  enterprises  tending  to  the  general  wel- 
fare of  his  beloved  countrymen,  the  Sultan  became 
greatly  alarmed  at  his  influence  and  summoned  him  to 
Constantinople.  While  there  repeated  attempts  upon 
his  life  were  made  by  the  Turkish  government,  and  he 
was  finally  banished  to  Jerusalem,  where  he  was 
shadowed  by  the  government  detectives.  On  May 
17,  1892,  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  Armenians 
everywhere,  the  noble  Hairig  was  unanimously 
elected  as  the  Supreme  Patriarch  and  Catholicos  of  all 
the  Armenians  ;  and  .-.pon  Czar  Alexander's  sanction  of 
the  election  he  was  ..aken  from  his  exile  to  Etchmiad- 
zin,  and  there  in  the  cathedral,  with  all  the  pomp  and 
ritual  of  this  ancieni  Church,  he  was  invested  with  the 
mantle  of  St.  Gregory  the  Illuminator  and  Nerses  the 
Great. 

The  author,  when  in  Constantinople  in  1889,  had 
the  rare  privilege  of  an  extended  interview  with  this 
highest  dignitary  of  the  Armenian  church  and  people. 
He   was    conducted    by  the    attending    clergy    of    His 


RIGHT  REV.    MIGRDITCH   KHIRIMIAN,    THE   ARMENIAN    CATHOLICOS. 


122  THE   TURK    AND   THE    LAND    OF   HAIG. 

Grace  into  the  presence  of  a  man  bowed  with  years  and 
honors,  clothed  in  the  usual  black  gown,  with  a  strong 
and  resolute  face,  a  flowing  beard,  and  a  forehead  indic- 
ative of  clear  and  spontaneous  thought.  This  person- 
age was  none  other  than  Khirimian  Hairig,  by  whom  the 
author  was  cordially  received;  and  the  memory  of  his  pa- 
ternal advice  and  apostolic  blessing  will  ever  linger  in  his 
mind  as  a  rare  inspiration.  When  about  to  depart,  the 
venerable  man  presented  his  young  countryman  with 
"The  Pearl  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  "The  Dis- 
course on  the  Cross,"  "  Sirac  and  Samuel,"  and  "The 
Family  of  Paradise,"  original  autograph  volumes  of 
fervent  Christian  sentiments  which  are  held  as  priceless 
additions  to  his  library. 

The  executive  authority  of  the  Catholicos  may  be 
compared  to  that  of  the  Pope,  as  he  has  entire  super- 
vision of  the  general  interests  and  work  of  the  Church 
throughout  the  world.  His  authority,  however,  is 
burdened  with  no  dogma  of  infallibility.  After  being 
elected  by  all  the  archbishops,  he  must  be  confirmed 
by  the  Czar  of  Russia,  who  guarantees  his  protection 
and  enforces  his  decrees.  This  custom  had  its  origin 
in  1750,  when  in  the  face  of  persecution  our  Patriarch 
appealed  to  the  Czar,  and  since  then  our  Church  has 
been  in  a  partial  sense  sheltered  by  the  Russian  Church, 
though  not  in  communion  with  it.  This  custom  was 
re-enforced  in  1828,  when  a  large  portion  of  Armenia 
was  ceded  to  Russia,  the  site  of  Etchmiadzin  itself  be- 
coming a  part  of  the  Czar's  dominions. 


THE   ARMENIAN    CHURCH.  123 

ECCLESIASTICAL    ORGANIZATION. 

There  is  also  a  Catholicos  at  Sis,  in  the  ancient  prov- 
ince of  Cicilia,  and  one  at  Akhtamar,  upon  the  island 
of  Lake  Van  ;  and  two  Patriarchs,  one  at  Constantino- 
ple and  one  at  Jerusalem.  The  Armenian  Patriar- 
chate at  Constantinople  was  first  established  in  1461  by 
Sultan  Mohammed  IL,  who,  having  captured  the  city, 
invited  Bishop  Hovagnem  of  Brusa  to  the  office.  The 
function  of  the  Patriarch  at  Constantinople  is  more  of 
a  political  nature,  representing  the  Armenian  nation 
and  Church  to  the  authorities.  Ecclesiastically,  he  holds 
the  rank  of  a  bishop,  being  chosen  from  a  body  of  one 
hundred  and  forty  members  of  the  National  Assembly, 
which  sits  at  Constantinople;  but  his  election  must  be 
confirmed  by  the  Sultan  of  Turkey.  Next  in  order  are 
the  archbishops  and  bishops,  who  are  elected  to  their 
office  by  the  entire  nation  and  ordained  by  the  Cathol- 
icos at  Etchmiadzin.  Formerly  it  was  the  custom 
to  ordain  these  officers  at  Caesarea  or  Sis,  but  in  the 
patriarchate  of  Nerses  the  Great,  who  lived  363  a.  d., 
the  present  practice  was  inaugurated. 

After  his  ordination  a  bishop  retires  to  a  room  in 
the  church  for  a  season  of  fasting  and  prayer.  During 
this  time  he  studies  the  ritual  and  forms  of  the  Church, 
and  at  its  conclusion  is  invested  with  the  power  of  absolu- 
tion. The  bishops  are  more  highly  educated  than  the 
priests,  being  elected  from  an  order  known  as  Yar- 
tabets,  or  doctors  of  theology.  Indeed  the  Vartabets 
represent  the  highest  culture  of  the  nation,  and  to  them 
it  is  indebted  for  most  of  its  literature. 

The  priest,  or  derder,  is  chosen  by  the  people  from 


124        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

among  themselves.  As  a  rule  he  is  a  venerable  man 
with  a  long  beard.  Celibacy  is  not  compulsory,  but  a 
priest  cannot  rise  higher  than  his  order  while  his  wife  is 
living.  He  performs  the  marriage  ceremony,  adminis- 
ters baptism,  officiates  at  funerals,  takes  charge  of  the 
morning  services,  and  looks  after  the  general  spiritual 
w^elfare  of  the  local  church.  He  receives  no  salary, 
but  depends  on  contributions  for  his  support.  The 
Armenian  monks  are  of  the  order  of  St.  Basil,  and  live 
after  a  much  severer  rule  than  those  of  the  Greek 
Church. 

The  Armenian  Church  is  apostolic  in  its  teachings, 
orthodox  in  its  form,  episcopal  and  liberal  in  its 
nature.  In  theology  it  is  Augustinian,  adopting,  the 
Apostolic,  the  Nicene  and  the  Athanasian  creeds. 
Both  in  its  doctrinal  and  ceremonial  aspects  it  has 
more  affinity  now  to  the  high  Anglican  Church  than  to 
any  other  branch  of  Christianity.  It  embraces  the 
doctrine  of  tiie  Trinity,  and  believes  in  the  incarnated 
divinity  of  Christ,  separated  but  blended  in  perfect 
harmony  in  an  unapproachable  life.  It  declares  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  an  essence  emanating  from  God,  and 
that  it  is  the  source  of  union  between  man  and  God. 
It  believes  in  the  adoration  and  mediation  of  saints, 
but  not  in  the  purgatorial  penance,  though  prayer  and 
entreaties  are  offered  for  the  pardon  of  departed  souls, 
Contrary  to  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches,  it  places 
the  Bible  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  believing  in  the 
potency  of  the  inspired  Word  for  the  conviction  and 
salvation  of  souls.  The  worship  of  the  Church  is  litur- 
gical ;  its  liturgy,  though  ancient  and  extensive,  is  yet 
most  beautiful  in  style  and  devout  in  religious  senti- 


THE  ARMENIAN  CHURCH.  I25 

ment.  Every  morning  at  sunrise,  and  every  evening  at 
sunset,  the  people  assemble  in  the  churches,  at  which 
time  the  Scriptures  are  chanted  or  read,  the  sermon  be- 
ing usually  preached  on  Sundays.  The  ceremonies  are 
always  performed  in  the  ancient  or  classical  Armenian, 
and  it  is  not  uncommon  for  the  people  to  go  home 
before  or  even  during  the  preaching,  because  of  the 
lengthy  liturgy.  The  sign  of  the  cross  is  used  at 
all  services.  The  adoration  of  pictures  of  saints  and 
of  the  cross  is  believed  to  be  of  special  efficacy. 

There  are  seven  sacraments — baptism,  confirmation, 
the  eucharist,  penance,  ordination,  marriage,  and  ex- 
treme unction.  The  Armenian  Church  practices  a 
triple  immersion  of  infants,  and  teaches  that  by  it  origi- 
nal sin  is  washed  away,  while  actual  sin  requires 
auricular  confession  and  penance.  Confirmation  is  ad- 
ministered immediately  after  baptism,  the  child  being 
anointed  with  holy  oil.  The  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation  is  regarded  as  extremely  important,  un- 
leavened bread  dipped  in  wine  being  used  in  the 
sacrament.  Penance  consists  in  fasting,  which  occurs 
every  Wednesday  and  Friday,  and  also  in  abstaining 
from  eggs  and  meat  of  all  kinds.  Confession  consti- 
tutes a  necessary  preparation  for  participation  in  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Extreme  unction  is 
administered  only  to  the  ecclesiastics.  There  are  also 
many  sacred  holidays,  among  which  is  Christmas,  cele- 
brated on  the  1 8th  of  January  ;  Epiphany  on  the  6th. 

Persecuted  by  the  relentless  Saracen,  and  by  the  still 
more  murderous  Mongol,  Tartar,  and  Turk,  Armenians 
have  always  held  their  ground  patiently  and  heroically, 


126        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

and  songs  of  hallelujah  they  have  sung  above  all  strife 
and  conflict.  Not  with  internal  controversies,  but  with 
the  red  blood  of  martyrdom,  have  they  maintained  their 
religion.  The  historian  Gibbon  has  well  said  :  "  Under 
the  rod  of  oppression  the  zeal  of  the  Armenians  is  fer- 
vent and  intrepid.  They  have  often  preferred  the 
crown  of  martyrdom  to  the  white  turban  of  Mahomet." 
During  the  wild  storm  of  massacres  that  swept  over 
the  Armenians  from  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  to  the 
city  of  Byzantium,  many  of  them  had  the  choice  of  death 
or  a  denial  of  Christ ;  and,  infused  with  a  fortitude  from 
Heaven,  they  unhesitatingly  chose  death.  "  We  cannot 
deny  our  Jesus,"  tliey  said,  and  the  Moslem  bayonets 
pierced  them  to  the  heart.  Indeed,  the  countless  hosts 
that  thus  died  the  death  of  hero-martyrs,  with  the  name 
of  the  Saviour  on  their  lips,  bear  an  eloquent  testimony 
to  the  truth  that  even  in  this  a^e  of  materialism 
and  skepticism  there  are  those  who  "  have  kept  the 
faith." 

•^Tangible  good  has  resulted  from  these  long  centu- 
ries of  persecution  ;  and  particularly  has  the  present 
crisis  drawn  our  people  more  closely  together,  and 
developed  in  the  faithful  an  ironclad  Christian  charac- 
ter which  successfully  withstands  the  sensual  allurements 
of  Islamism.  Thus  the  Armenian  Church  has  served  a 
double  mission,  not  only  teaching  religion  to  the  peo- 
ple, but  acting  as  the  conservator  of  the  national  spirit 
and  unity.  Patriotism  and  a  common  religion  are  two 
important  uniting  forces  of  a  nation,  and  of  the  two 
religion  has  proved  far  more  potent  in  its  preserving 
power,  for  it  is  largely  due  to  its  influence  that  the 
Armenians,  even  under  the  Turkish  yoke,  still  preserve 


EARLY    MONASTERIES    AND    CHURCHES   OF   ARMENIA. 


128  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

their  national  peculiarities,  and  are  independent  in 
spirit,  if  not  in  fact. 

That  Church  has  for  its  corner-stone  Christ  Jesus, 
and  rests  on  the  firm  foundation  of  the  inspired  revela- 
tion. Indeed,  to  the  truth  has  been  added  some  super- 
stition, and  the  religion  once  so  full  of  spirit  and 
devotion  has  somewhat  lapsed  into  formalism  ;  and  yet 
one  cannot  but  admire  the  heroism  with  which  our  peo- 
ple have  contended  for  their  religion  and  Church.  Ar- 
menia ever  upholds  her  torch,  which  emits  its  gracious 
light.  The  voice  of  the  Apostles,  here  heard  so  long 
ago,  has  never  ceased  to  inspire  our  people,  and  the  fire 
kindled  in  our  souls  has  never  sunk  to  ashes. 

In  Armenia  the  Bible  is  and  always  has  been  in  the 
hands  of  the  people,  and  our  customs  and  life  are  per- 
meated with  its  leavening  principles.  Thus  the  obsta- 
cles with  which  foreign  missionaries  usually  have  had 
to  contend  are  not  found  here.  Armenia  is  des- 
tined to  a  great  awakening.  Christian  missions  have 
flourished  and  increased  here  as  in  no  other  land. 

In  conclusion  we  may  well  ask  :  Has  the  Western 
World  at  any  time  equaled  Armenia  in  its  religious 
loyalty?  Does  not  Occidental  Christendom,  which 
to-day  enjoys  the  peace,  love,  and  cordial  fellowship  of 
Christianity,  owe  something  to  the  Oriental  pioneer 
who  "  fought  to  win  tlie  prize,  and  sailed  through 
bloody  seas  "  ?  Let  hands  be  clasped  across  the  wide 
ocean  that  separates  us  ;  and  let  Christendom  hearken 
once  more  to  the  cry  that  comes  in  the  night  :  "  Come 
over  and  help  us." 


THE    EVANGELICAL   CHURCH. 


"  Nearly  everything  which  has  been  done  for  these  ancient 
seats  of  Christianity  by  modern  Christian  nations  has  been  done 
by  American  missionaries,  whose  schools  and  colleges,  planted  in 
various  parts  of  western  Asia,  have  rekindled  the  flame  of  knowl- 
edge, and  stimulated  the  native  Eastern  churches  to  resume  the 
intellectual  activity  which  once  distinguished  them." — James 
Bryce. 

THE  labor  of  evangelization  among  the  Armenians 
has  been    in    its    nature   fundamentally    different 
from  that  of  most  other  mission  countries? 

No  heathen  idolatry  was  here  with  which  to  contend. 
No  wooden  gods  and  massive  temples  built  by  super- 
stition were  to  be  torn  down  before  Christianity  could 
be  introduced  and  a  true  God  preached.  The  people 
already  v/orshiped  the  God  of  the  Christian  ;  the 
spiritual  kingdom  needed  not  a  revolution  so  much  as 
a  reformation,  and  it  is  with  complacency  that  Armenia 
can  point  to  one  of  her  own  sons  as  the  instigator  and 
founder  of  the  reform  movement.  We  refer  to  a 
native  priest  living  near  Constantinople,  who  in  the 
year  1760  put  forth  a  manuscript  copy  of  a  book  whose 
every  page  breathed  the  spirit  of  dissatisfaction  with 
the  existing  state  of  religious  life.  Besides  speaking 
in  commendatory  terms  of  the  great  reformer  Martin 
Luther,  it  pointed  out  many  errors  into  which  the 
Church  had  gradually  fallen,  and  urged  that  a  reform 
of  some  sort  was  eminently  necessary. 

129 


I30        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

This  book,  for  some  reason  never  printed,  wielded 
a  salutary  influence  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  espe- 
cially among  the  higher  clergy,  many  of  whom  were 
inspired  by  it  to  more  or  less  effective  action. 

One  of  the  indications  of  the  spiritual  lethargy  of 
the  times  was  the  extreme  rarity  of  Bibles  ;  and  here  we 
take  occasion  to  say  that  no  true  and  active  Christian  life 
is  possible  without  some  communion  with  that  stimulus 
of  the  soul's  higher  existence,  the  Word  of  God.  It 
was  a  most  healthful  sign  when  an  urgent  want  began 
to  be  expressed  for  more  copies  of  the  sacred  Book, 
and  it  was  also  a  very  encouraging  expression  of  the 
pulse  of  Christendom  when  the  British  and  Russian 
Bible  societies,  at  about  the  same  time,  proffered  their 
help  in  the  field  white  unto  harvest.  As  an  outcome 
of  the  self-sacrificing  interest  of  these  two  organiza- 
tions, in  the  years  1813,  1815,  1817,  and  1823  about 
twenty  thousand  copies  of  the  Sjcriptures  were  pub- 
lished in  our  language.  The  Armenians  will  ever 
gratefully  remember  this  timely  service.  It  was  soon 
perceived,  however,  that  much  more  good  would  be 
accomplished  were  the  translations  made  in  modern 
Armenian  rather  than  in  the  ancient  tongue.  The 
latter  the  common  people  were  not  able  to  read,  and 
most  of  the  copies  published  fell,  of  necessity,  into  the 
hands  of  priests  and  monks.  The  modern  Armenian 
is  understood  by  educated  and  uneducated  alike,  and 
the  Bible  societies  referred  to  did  a  very  wise  thing 
in  putting  forth  another  version  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  both  clergymen  and  laity,  both  poor  and  rich. 

The  pioneer  work  in  any  mission  country  is  the 
placing  in  the  hands  of  its  people  the  Word  in  their 


THE  EVANGELICAL  CHURCH.  I3I 

own  language.  It  is  the  foundation  for  the  future 
edifice,  the  sowing  for  the  future  harvest ;  and  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  Scriptures,  at  this  time  was  not  without 
its  significant  fruit  in  later  years,  for  it  has  not  only 
produced  a  higher  morality,  not  merely  been  the 
means  of  spiritual  life,  but  it  has  also  given  impetus  to 
mental  activity. 

We  now  come  to  that  which  is  most  interesting  to 
those  who  probably  comprise  the  majority  of  the 
readers  of  this  book — the  work  of  the  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  Missionary  Levi  Parsons 
met  at  Jerusalem,  in  1821,  several  Armenians  who, 
according  to  a  custom  still  in  vogue,  were  on  a  pil- 
grimage thither.  Becoming  interested  in  them,  he 
proposed  the  establishment  of  a  mission.  They  were 
all  pleased  with  the  idea  and  declared  their  country- 
men would  be  glad  to  have  one  established. 

The  movement  began  in  Constantinople,  and  thence 
gradually  it  extended  to  Smyrna,  Brusa,  Trebizond, 
Erzrum,  Aintab,  Marsovan,  and  so  on  throughout  the 
Turkish  Empire.  Constantinople,  a  description  of 
which  will  be  found  in  a  chapter  devoted  exclusively 
to  that  subject,  has  over  eight  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants.  The  majority  are  Turks,  but  the  Arme- 
nians are  next  in  number,  there  being  over  two  hun- 
dred thousand  of  our  people.  In  1831,  when  Rev. 
William  Goodell,  D.  D.,  was  called  from  Malta,  where 
he  engaged  in  missionary  work,  to  this  city,  about  one 
hundred  thousand  Armenians  were  there,  offering  a 
very  attractive  field  for  effort.  This  was  in  June, 
1831;  but  scarcely  had  he  established  himself  in  Pera, 
one  of  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  when  a  destructive  fire 


132  THE  TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF  HAIG. 

necessitated  the  removal  of  the  mission  to  a  town 
some  few  miles  up  the  Bosphorus.  Although  thus 
meeting-  with  adversity,  the  original  purpose  of  the 
mission  was  not  allowed  to  suffer,  and  in  the  followinof 
year  we  again  find  Rev.  William  Goodell  in  Constanti- 
nople, this  time  accompanied  by  two  more  efficient 
workers,  Revs.  G.  O.  Dwight  and  William  G. 
Schauffler,  both  Americans.  These  threv^  men  of  God 
were  welcomed  very  cordially  by  the  Patriarch,  and 
suffered  no  inconvenience  that  could  be  prevented. 
It  indeed  seemed  as  though  the  mission  were  blessed 
of  God.  We  will  see  later  on  how  the  Patriarch  main- 
tained his  first  attitude. 

In  our  chapter  on  the  Armenian  Church  we  have 
described  at  length  its  services  and  forms  of  worship. 
It  was  the  policy  of  the  missionaries,  from  the  inau- 
guration of  their  work,  to  leave  severely  alone  the  outer 
bulwarks  of  the  Church,  for  this  would  only  have 
instigated  intense  opposition  from  all  quarters.  It 
was  thought  best  to  transform  first  the  spiritual,  and 
that  being  changed,  the  outer  manifestation  in  material 
forms  and  ceremonies  would  be  done  away  with  as 
a  logical  result. 

That  this  method  was  a  success  was  soon  seen,  and 
the  first  fruits  of  labor  were  very  encouraging.  The 
first  year  Rev.  Dr.  Goodell,  during  a  visit,  was  the  means 
of  converting  two  priests.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  six  years  afterward,  when  visiting  the  same  place, 
sixteen  were  found  who  were  believed  to  be  earnest 
converts.  In  Brusa,  too,  where  a  mission  had  been 
established,  the  work  was  progressing  finely.  The 
first  converts  meant  much  for  the  cause,  for  they  were 


THE   EVANGELICAL   CHURCH.  1 33 

two  young  teachers  in  influential  positions,  havino- 
under  their  tutorship  many  young  people.  But,  despite 
all  hopes,  this  tranquillity  was  not  destined  to  continue 
long,  and  opposition  very  soon  began  to  molest  the 
workers.  At  Trebizond  and  at  Erzrum,  two  mission 
stations  of  the  American  Board,  outrages  were  con- 
tinually perpetrated. 

The  Patriarch,  heretofore  so  kindly  disposed  to  all 
mission  enterprises,  fearing  that  the  movement  meant 
an  encroachment  upon  the  National  Church,  declared 
himself  in  word  and  deed  against  it.  In  the  year  1837 
patriarchal  bulls  were  issued,  threatening  anathemas 
against  all  who  should  be  found  guilty  of  associatino- 
with  missionaries  or  reading  literature  circulated  by 
them.  The  Patriarch  at  Constantinople  at  that  time 
was  almost  of  papal  power  and  influence.  He  ban- 
ished a  number  of  Protestants  from  the  capital,  impris- 
oned many,  and  threatened  to  exile  the  missionaries, 
when  the  war  between  the  Sultan  and  Mohammed  Ali 
intervened,  attracting  the  minds  of  the  people  to  more 
serious  problems.  While  we  sadly  lament  this  action 
of  the  Patriarch,  we  have  no  doubt  as  to  his  conscien- 
tiousness. He  was,  as  he  thought,  protecting  his 
people ;  for  since  the  State  had  fallen,  the  Church 
remained  as  the  only  bulwark  of  a  distinctive  nation- 
ality, and,  if  the  past  was  to  be  taken  into  account,  his 
fears  were  not  ill-founded.  Years  before  the  Roman 
Church  had  materially  weakened  the  Armenian  Church 
by  proselyting  large  numbers  of  her  members.  Was 
the  present  measure,  then,  injudicious  ?  We  believe 
not. 

Let   us  consider,  too,  that   conservatism   is   the  dis- 


134        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

tinctive  characteristic  of  all  Oriental  Christians.  Ritu- 
alism, in  vogue  for  ages,  becomes  sacred.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  for  centuries  the  conservative  ritualism  of 
the  Armenian  Church  was  a  bulwark  of  defense  ap^ainst 
Roman  and  Greek  heresies.  The  severe  animosity 
existing  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  churches  is 
an  apt  illustration  of  the  Armenian  Church  as  well. 
During  the  siege  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks,  the 
union  of  all  Christians  against  Mohammed  was  desir- 
able, and  to  this  end  the  papal  legate  was  to  confirm 
the  reunion  of  Christendom  at  St.  Sophia.  Even  at 
this  critical  moment  the  fiery  protest  rose,  in  unison 
with  Patriarchal  Gennadius,  from  all  Grecian  lips, 
"Give  us  the  Sultan's  turban  rather  than  the  Cardinal's 
hat."  It  is  easy  to  imagine,  if  this  was  the  feeling 
between  cooriate  churches,  what  the  feelings  aeainst 
a  church  which  is  altoQether  foreign  and  stranee  would 
be.  Yet,  aside  from  these  considerations,  the  greatest 
cause  of  the  Armenian  Church's  hostility  to  the 
evangelical  movement  was  due  to  the  Russian  influ- 
ence, which  was  by  far  the  dominant  factor  of  the 
entire  situation  ;  and  it  was,  indeed  under  the  influence 
of  St.  Petersburg  alone  that  the  Armenian  Church 
became  for  a  time  a  persecuting  church. 

The  nominally  Christian  Russia  is  the  uncompromis- 
ing foe  of  religious  liberty,  and  as  such  she  used  all  meas- 
ures in  her  power  to  repress  the  incipient  movement. 
The  Russian  minister  at  Constantinople  was  acting  in 
a  double  capacity.  When  Rev.  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin's 
Armenian  teacher  was  about  to  be  banished  to  Siberia 
for  his  affiliation  with  the  evangelical  movement,  one 
of  the  pioneer  American   missionaries  entered  a  pro- 


THE   EVANGELICAL   CHURCH.  I35 

test.  To  this  protest  the  Russian  minister  gave 
an  emphatic  answer  in  the  following  words,  "  I  want 
you  to  understand  that  my  master  the  Czar  will  never 
allow  Protestantism  to  set  foot  in  the  Turkish  Empire." 
In  the  recent  agitation  the  Turkish  crusade  against 
the  American  missionaries  was  largely  due  to  the 
pernicious  influence  of  the  despotic  Czar. 

Things  slowly  came  to  a  crisis ;  the  methods  of 
persecution  were  many  and  diverse.  Reports  of  the 
most  absurd  nature  were  circulated  everywhere  and 
believed,  until  the  whole  Church,  with  but  few 
exceptions,  changed  its  front  to  the  offensive. 
Although  in  the  year  1843  the  Sultan,  urged  by  the 
British  minister.  Sir  Stratford  Canning,  and  others, 
had  ordered  that  no  person  in  the  empire  should  be 
persecuted  for  his  religious  opinions,  anathemas  and  ex- 
communications were  repeatedly  issued  and  produced 
their  dire  effect  upon  the  minds  of  the  people.  With 
excommunications  came  social  degradation  and  dis- 
ofrace ;  the  accursed  one  was  excluded  from  home 
and  relatives,  the  bakers  were  forbidden  to  sell 
to  him,  and  he  was  often  confined  in  prison.  The 
cruelties  practiced  upon  the  Christians  in  the  three 
years  following  would  take  volumes  to  adequately 
relate.  Many  were  the  heroic  souls,  who,  still  inspired 
with  zeal,  remained  steadfast  through  the  storm  of 
conflict.  The  culmination  of  it  all  was  the  formation 
in  1846  of  the  first  Armenian  Evangelical  Church. 

However,  before  we  enter  into  a  detailed  account  of 
this  movement,  we  propose  to  present  a  short  account 
of  a  factor  which  all  these  years  had  exercised  no  little 
power  as   an  auxiliary  to   the   more   strictly  religious 


136        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

work.  Missionaries  soon  discovered  that  if  the  pre- 
senting of  Christianity  were  accompanied  by  educa- 
tional work,  much  more  tano-ible  eood  would  be 
accomplished.  Accordingly,  from  almost  the  very 
outset,  schools  were  established  at  nearly  every  mission 
station  ;  thus  the  education  of  the  intellect  kept  pace 
with  the  higher  education  of  the  heart.  These  are 
the  handmaids  of  civilization. 

The  school  that  probably  had  the  most  influence  in 
this  formative  and  unsettled  epoch  was  that  established 
at  Constantinople  in  1827.  Indirectly  the  school  had 
its  origin  in  a  farewell  letter  written  by  Jonas  King, 
a  manuscript  copy  of  which  was  sent  to  some  influ- 
ential Armenians  in  the  capital.  From  this  letter  the 
conviction  came  that  reformation  was  necessary,  and 
the  institution  referred  to  was  founded  with  an 
eminent  and  learned  man,  Peshtimaljian,  at  its  head. 

We  will  not  speak  at  length  of  the  valuable  services 
of  this  school  of  the  mission  ;  suffice  it  to  say  that 
six  years  later  fifteen  of  its  graduates  were  ordained  as 
priests,  one  of  them,  Der  Kevork,  being  immediately 
placed  at  the  head  of  another  new  school  in  the  same 
city  that  had  just  been  founded  by  the  Armenians. 
Had  it  not  been  for  tlie  earnest  work  of  the  mission- 
aries, it  is  doubtful  whether  this  school  would  have 
ever  come  into  existence. 

The  educational  work  increased  in  power  and  scope  ; 
and  in  the  following  year,  1834,  a  high  school  was 
located  at  Pera.  Its  principal  was  a  very  consecrated 
young  man  by  the  name  of  Hohannes  Sahakian,  who 
a  short  time  before  had  been  a  student  at  Constan- 
tinople.     While    there    a    New    Testament   had  fallen 


-W' 


REV.    CYRUS   HAMLIN,  D.    D.,   LL.   D. 


138        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

into  his  hands,  and  as  a  residt  he  became  an  earnest 
Christian  and  gave  some  highly  valuable  assistance  in 
the  work  of  translation  at  the  mission.  His  companion 
Senakerim,  a  teacher  in  the  palace  of  the  Patriarch, 
was  converted  about  the  same  time,  and  also  labored 
in  a  school  for  children  at  one  of  the  stations. 

But  even  the  schools  received  their  share  of  the 
general  persecution,  and  as  a  result  of  the  interference 
of  the  vicar  of  the  Armenian  Patriarch,  the  High 
School  at  Pera  was  compelled  to  stop  its  work.  How- 
ever, the  result  was  not  wholly  evil,  for  another  was 
immediately  started  at  Hasskevy  by  a  rich  banker, 
with  Sahakian  as  superintendent  and  Der  Kevork  as 
one  of  its  teachers.  Although  this  school,  with  an 
attendance  of  over  six  hundred,  was  recognized  by  the 
Armenian  Synod  and  made  a  national  institution,  it 
was  done  away  with  the  following  year  because  of  cer- 
tain threatenings  made  by  a  number  of  hostile  bankers. 

The  work  at  Smyrna  was  significant  of  a  remarkable 
advance  in  a  country  where  women  were  esteemed  of 
little  importance.  Here  a  female  seminary  was  opened 
and,  owing  to  the  urgent  appeal  of  an  influential 
citizen,  not  only  repaid  the  former  aid,  but  the  mission 
soon  became  self-supporting.  The  influence  of  the 
school,  with  an  attendance  of  about  forty  at  the  outset, 
cannot  be   estimated. 

Another  important  educational  institution  was  the 
seminary  at  Bebek,  a  theological  school",  in  which, 
besides  a  critical  study  of  the  Bible,  were  taught 
Latin,   Greek,  and    Hebrew. 

As  we  mentioned  before,  it  was  not  the  object  of  the 
missionaries   to  attack  the  outworks  of  the   National 


THE   EVANGELICAL  CHURCH.  139 

Church,  nor  to  found  a  separate  body.     From  the  first 
they,  along  with  the  converted  members,  objected  very 
seriously   to   being  known   by   the   designation  "  Prot- 
estants,"   or  any  other  name  that  would  appear  as  an 
indication     of     disunion.       However,     as     persecution 
became   more  and  more  intense,  it  was  apparent  that 
something  must  be  done;  and  when   in  1846  an  anath- 
ema   was    issued,  formally    excommunicating   all   who 
adhered    to   the   new  faith,   nothing   was   left   for  the 
missionaries    but    to     form    a   separate    organization. 
Accordingly,    in    the    following   year    a    meeting    was 
called  at  Constantinople,  ai  which  the  missionaries  were 
present,  and,  after  the  reading  of  a  covenant  to  which 
all  assented,   the   first   Evangelical    Armenian    Church 
became  a  reality,  with  a  due  recognition  by  the  Turk- 
ish   government   as    a    separate    religious    community. 
What  was  intended  to  be  only  missionary  work  in  the 
efforts  of  re-establishing  a  purer  Christianity  in  an  his- 
toric Christian  church   thus    resulted  in   the  organiza- 
tion of  a  separate  religious  institution.      To  whatever 
causes  we  may  attribute  this  division,  they  will  not  alter 
the  fact  that  it  was  a  sad  and  disadvantageous  occur- 
rence.    This   body,  at   first   numbering   forty   souls,  of 
which  three  were  women,  was  presided  over  by  one  of 
the  former  students  of  the  Peshtimaljian  school,  a  man 
entirely  worthy  of  the  trust.     The  initiatory  thus  be- 
ino-    taken,    other     churches  were  almost   immediately 
organized  in   other  parts  of  the  country.      In  two  years 
there  was  a  very  strong  church  at  Aintab,  which  soon 
grew  to  a  membership  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight  ; 
and  others  at  Trebizond,  Erzrum,  and  Marsovan,  which 
were  among  the  first  missionary  stations,  and  also  at 


I40        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Nicomedia  and  Adabazar.  Although  the  aggregate 
membership  at  this  time  was  not  over  a  thousand,  it 
meant  much  as  a  beginning. 

We  must  not  neglect  to  speak  here  of  one  of  the 
leading  benefactors  of  the  new  movement,  Sir  Stratford 
Canning,  through  whose  untiring  efforts  concession 
after  concession  was  made  until  the  Protestant  com- 
munity enjoyed  almost  the  same  measure  of  tolerance 
as  the  National  Church. 

In  the  treaty  of  Paris,  with  the  voluntary  assent  of 
the  Sultan,  these  rights  were  incorporated  and  religious 
liberty  was  thus  more  fully  insured.      Free  schools  were 
organized  to  the  number  of  thirty-eight,  and  the  work 
progressed  and  widened  in  territory  until  it  was  found 
necessary   to   divide   the   field   of    labor   into   the   four 
divisions   of    the   present   time — the   Western   Turkey 
Mission,  embracing  territorially  as  its  stations  Constanti- 
nople, Nicomedia,  Brusa,  Smyrna,  Marsovan,  Cajsarea 
Sivas,  and    Trebizond  ;    the    Central    Turkey  Mission, 
lying  to  the  south  of  the  Taurus  Mountains  and  to  the 
west  of  the  Euphrates  valley,  with  Aintab  and  Marash 
as  its  principal  stations;  the  Eastern  Turkey  Mission, 
including  what  lies  between   these  two  fields  and  the 
Persian    and     Russian     borders,  with     its    stations    at 
Erzrum,   Harput,  Mardin,  Bitlis,  and  Van  ;  and,  lastly, 
the   latest    mission    in   European    Turkey.      Originally 
the  Central   Mission,  which  was  organized  in  1856,  was 
known  as  the  Southern  Mission,  while  the  Eastern  and 
Western,  organized  in  i860,  were  one,  with  the  name  of 
Northern  Mission. 

As  the  work  progressed  it  was  a  source  of  great  satis- 
faction to  see  native  preachers  gradually  taking  places 


142        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

as  efficient  pastors  of  the  native  congregations.  They 
were  rarely,  if  ever,  compelled  to  call  on  the  mission- 
aries for  help,  as  nearly  all  the  churches  managed,  by 
sacrifice  on  the  part  of  both  pastor  and  people,  to  be 
self-supporting  from  the  beginning.  Revivals  became 
frequent  and  were  the  means  of  the  conversion  of 
many.  In  1856  occurred  a  soul-stirring  revival  in 
Marsovan,  my  native  city.  The  theological  seminary 
at  Bebek,  not  far  from  the  capital,  experienced  a 
similar  awakening,  as  also  did  Caesarea  and  numbers  of 
smaller  cities. 

Through  the  translations  of  Rev.  Messrs.  Riggs, 
Goodell,  and  Schauffler  the  work  received  a  new 
impulse.  The  former,  with  the  aid  of  an  Armenian, 
put  forth  a  translation  of  the  Bible  in  Turko-Armenian, 
that  is,  the  Turkish  language  written  in  Armenian. 
The  latter  performed  a  similar  service  for  the  ^Furks, 
his  translations  being  in  their  own  language,  written  in 
the  sacred  characters. 

Although  these  translations  lent  a  wonderful  impetus 
to  the  work,  in  1874  it  was  deemed  necessary  to 
appoint  a  revision  committee,  who  six  years  later  put 
forth  an  excellent  version,  written  in  both  the  Armenian 
and  Turkish  letters. 

It  would  be  useless  in  a  short  sketch  of  this  kind  to 
give  a  detailed  account  of  the  individual  work  of  the 
missionaries,  although  we  fain  would  do  so.  We  must 
be  satisfied  with  touching  upon  the  more  important 
events.  We  cannot  pass,  however,  without  some 
notice  of  associations  and  unions  that  came  into  being 
about  this  time  as  a  result  of  the  constantly  increasing 
number  of  members  of  churches. 


THE   EVANGELICAL   CHURCH.  I43 

Organization  is  necessary  to  systematic  work,  and  in 
1857  the  churches  at  Nicomedia,  Adabazar,  and  Bardi- 
zag,  formed  themselves  into  what  was  known  as  the 
Bithynian  Association. 

A  much  larger  and  more  important  organization  was 
the  union  of  the  Evangelical  Armenian  churches  of 
Bithynia,  now  embracing  twelve  stations  and  churches. 
This  was  formed  in  1864.  The  next  year  the  Harput 
Evangelical  Union  came  into  existence — a  union  that 
did  much  in  the  promulgation  of  the  Gospel  among  the 
Armenians  living  in  the  wild  region  of  the  Kurds,  some 
little  distance  from  Diarbekir.  Othe>r  potent  organiza- 
tions were  the  Central  and  Cilician  unions,  formed  at  a 
later  date.  The  results  of  these  various  associations 
were  essentially  good.  Besides  putting  the  churches 
in  closer  contact  and  sympathy  with  one  another  they 
learned  to  rely  more  upon  themselves,  and  calls  for 
aid  from  foreign  countries  became  more  and  more 
infrequent. 

Nor  must  it  be  supposed  that  the  work  of  evangeliza- 
tion was  confined  to  the  Evangelical  Church  alone,  for 
many  members  of  the  old  National  Church,  who  were 
essentially  Protestants,  effected  needed  reforms.  One 
of  their  measures  was  the  publication  of  a  new  pra\  er 
book,  which,  though  never  used  to  any  extent,  created 
much  interest  and  comment.  No  less  encouraging  was 
the  fact  that  in  the  dissemination  of  the  Scriptures, 
numbers  of  copies  of  the  New  Testament  were  dis- 
posed of  to  Mohammedans,  which,  though  undoubt- 
edly bought  for  mere  curiosity,  could  not  fail  to  have 
some  influence  for  good. 

Within  late  years,  although  the  growth  of  the  Church 


144        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

has  never  been  marvelous,  its  course  cannot  be  said 
to  have  been  entireK'  without  disturbing-  influences. 
Calamity  came  in  the  shape  of  a  dire  famine,  which 
prevailed  in  all  Asia  Minor  during  the  years  of  1874 
and  1875.  At  this  time  thousands  wandered  about  the 
streets  of  Marsovan  and  other  cities,  beeroino-  bread 
from  door  to  door.  A  large  number  died  from  famine, 
while  some  gratefully  received  aid  from  the  missionaries 
at  Csesarea  and  Marsovan.  This  kindness  was  not 
suffered  to  go  unrewarded,  for  on  account  of  it  many 
opened  their  hearts  to  the  words  of  the  Gospel.  We 
must  especially  speak  in  terms  of  praise  of  Rev.  Mr. 
Farnsworth  and  Rev.  C.  C.  Tracy,  who  did  much  to 
relieve  the  oreneral  sufferino. 

Among  institutions  which  are  instrumental  in  the 
missionary  work,  the  Bible  House  at  Constantinople 
deserves  special  mention.  Thousands  of  copies  of  the 
Scriptures  are  published  here,  in  modern  Armenian  as 
well  as  in  thirty  other  languages.  They  are  quickly 
sold  and  read  by  people  of  various  nationalities. 
Besides  the  Bible,  this  institution  publishes  books, 
tracts,  and  newspapers  of  a  religious  and  educational 
character.  While  in  Constantinople,  it  alwa)s  afforded 
me  great  pleasure  to  visit  this  noble  edifice  and  to 
enjoy  the  devotional  services  conducted  there  every 
Lord's  Day. 

The  progress  and  prosperity  of  educational  work 
has  been,  and  is,  an  inspiring  fact.  We  have  already 
alluded  to  its  importance,  and  have  mentioned  some  of 
the  earliest  schools. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Judson  Smith,  the  secretary  of  the 
American  Board,  states  that  "  Education  has  been  a 


^    CI 

H   o 

5  § 


M   2 


146  THE  TURK  AND  THE   LAND   OF  HAIG. 

marked  feature  of  the  work  in  these  missions  almost 
from  the  beginning,  and  nowhere  else  in  the  fields 
occupied  by  the  board  have  we  to-day  so  many  institu- 
tions of  a  high  grade  so  fully  attended."  For  the 
great  educator  Rev.  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin  my  country- 
men have  a  never-dying  and  the  profoundest  sense  of 
gratitude.  Aside  from  his  educational  enterprises,  he 
has  been  in  all  his  heroic  exploits  eminently  successful. 

There  are  several  higfher  educational  institutions  at 
my  home,  Marsovan,  among  them  being  Anatolia 
College,  where  I  studied.  There  is  also  a  ladies'  semi- 
nary and  a  theological  seminary  of  no  little  repute. 
My  former  teachers,  Rev.  C.  C.  Tracy,  D.  D.,  and 
Rev.  Geo.  F.  Herrick,  D.  D.,  an  eminent  Oriental 
scholar,  are  the  founders  and  constant  inspiration  of 
Anatolia  College.  We  have  spoken  of  the  theological 
school  at  Bebek ;  others  of  a  similar  nature  were 
founded  soon  afterward  in  Marash  ;  there  is  Central 
Turkey  Female  College,  and  at  Scutari  the  Armenian 
College  for  Girls ;  while  Harput  is  the  location  of 
Euphrates  College. 

Aintab,  where  missionary  work  has  been  exception- 
ally prosperous,  is  the  site  of  the  College  of  Central 
Turkey.  But  the  institution  of  which  Armenians  may 
feel  most  proud  is  the  well-known  Robert  College, 
named  after  its  financial  founder,  Christopher  R. 
Robert  of  New  York  City.  This  college,  located  first 
in  Bebek  and  afterward  on  the  heights  of  Roumeli 
Hissar,  is  one  of  the  best  institutions  of  the  kind  in 
the  world,  being  well-equipped  with  excellent  pro- 
fessors and  enjoying  the  patronage  of  nearly  every 
nationality.      It   was  established  in    1863,  through  the 


148        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

influence  of  Rev.  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  an  American  who 
has  since  been  its  constant  inspiration.  Though  not  a 
missionary  institution,  yet  the  prosperity  of  Christian 
work  among  its  students  has  equaled  the  highest 
expectations. 

Aside  from  these  higher  institutions,  there  are 
twenty-six  high  schools  for  boys  ;  nineteen  boarding 
schools,  or  seminaries,  for  girls,  with  about  two  thou- 
sand students  ;  and  three  hundred  and  fifty  common 
schools,  containing  more  than  sixteen  thousand  pupils. 

The  young  men  are  taking  increasing  interest  in  the 
Church,  and  a  number  of  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations  have  been  organized.  By  no  means  the 
least  blessing  is  the  advancement  of  woman  from  her 
degradation  to  a  plane  of  culture  and  refinement, 
chiefly  owing  to  the  liberality  of  the  natives  them- 
selves in  the  cause  of  female  education.  What  a 
happy  result,  that  the  youth  of  both  sexes  share  alike 
the  opportunities  of  culture  ! 

Prospects  were  never  brighter.  The  number  and 
rolls  in  the  evangelical  churches  are  larger  than  ever 
before,  and  the  common-school  system  is  one  that 
promises  great  results  in  the  advance  of  civilization. 

To  this,  the  largest  mission  field  of  the  American 
Board,  700  missionaries  have  been  sent  out  at  a  cost 
exceeding  the  sum  of  $6,000,000.  Its  present  prop- 
erty is  worth  $1,500,000;  it  has  176  missionaries  now 
in  the  field,  with  878  native  trained  ministers  and 
assistants.  The  board  has  now  125  churches  with 
about  13,000  members  and  30,000  adherents,  most  of 
which  number  are  Armenians.  Indeed,  for  actual 
missionary  work,  our  people  have  been  selected  as  the 


THE  EVANGELICAL  CHURCH. 


149 


first  fruits  of  missionary  effort  because  of  their  ready 
appreciation  of  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God  ;  and 
to  this  very  day  the  work  of  evangehzation  in  tha 
country  has  been  restricted  to  Armenians,  Greeks,  and 


PRESIDENT    C.    C.    TRACY    AND    STUDENTS    OF    ANATOLIA    COLLEGE. 

Others  of  ancient  Christian  churches,  while  the  Turks 
and  all  other  Mohammedan  peoples  have  ever  remained 
irresponsive  and  hostile  to  the  light  of  the  gospel. 
The  missionaries  from  the  very  start  discovered  the 
impossibility  of  converting  them  to  Christianity. 


150        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Encouraged  by  their  success  among  the  Armenians 
and  Greeks,  the  missionaries    were  ardently  pursuing 
their  work  and  laying  plans  for  larger  usefulness  when 
the  storm  of  Moslem  hatred  and  fanaticism  fell  upon 
our    land,    devastating    hamlet    and    town,    city     and 
province.      In  the  afflicted  provinces  missionary  work, 
as  well  as  all  business  activity,  was  at  a  standstill ;  and 
with  gloomy   apprehension   for   future  labor    the  mis- 
sionaries stood  at  their  posts  and  heroically  continued 
their  sacred  work,  hoping  almost  against  hope  for  the 
return    of     peace     and     security.     These     noblest     of 
America's     sons     and     daughters    acted    in    a    double 
capacity  :   not   only  did  they  protect  the  Word,  but  at 
the  same  time,  as  a  splendid  illustration  of  true  Chris- 
tianity, they   reached   out  to   succor  the  thousands  of 
homeless    and    destitute    Christians    of    our    unhappy 
land.      Herewith   let   me  take  occasion  to  express  the 
everlasting  thanks  and  the  heart-felt  gratitude  of  my 
countrymen    for   that  noble  company  of  Christians   in 
the   United  States  and   England,  whose  hearts  being 
touched  by  the  terrible  story  of  Armenia's  woes,  sent 
out    material   aid   in   the   form  of   practical  sympathy. 
Such  relief  has  been  administered  to  the  best  advan- 
tage   through    the    American   missionaries    as    well  as 
through  the  agency  of  the  American  Red  Cross  Asso- 
ciation.     The   Red   Cross  organization,   purely  philan- 
thropic in  its   nature   and  purport,  took   the  field   with 
its  efficient  president,  Miss  Clara   Barton,   at  the  head 
of  her  corps  of  trained   workers.      That  such  a   move- 
ment   was    not    in   accord   with   the   Sultan's  policy   of 
Armenia's  extermination    was  sufficiently  apparent   at 
the  very  outset.      The  Turkish  government  hampered 


THE  EVANGELICAL  CHURCH.  I5I 

and  opposed  it,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  order  the 
missionaries  who  were  dispensing  relief  out  of  the 
country,  with  a  threat  that,  should  they  fail  to  with- 
draw within  three  days,  serious  consequences  would 
follow.  Indeed,  the  European  missionaries,  in  compli- 
ance with  such  demands,  abandoned  the  relief  work, 
while  the  American  missionaries  held  their  ground. 
Meanwhile  this  mandate  of  the  Turkish  government 
was  so  vigorously  and  firmly  opposed  by  the  Euro- 
pean powers  that  the  Sultan  was  obliged  promptly  to 
change  his  attitude  upon  the  subject,  and  even  decided 
to  send  troops  for  the  protection  of  the  missionaries. 
Such  an  unlooked-for  act  of  the  Porte  is  indeed  an  en- 
tire corroboration  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  terse  declaration, 
"  The  Turk  o-ives  heed  to  nothincr  but  an  ultimatum." 
Nevertheless,  in  the  recent  general  destruction  of  life 
and  property,  this  momentous  movement  of  long 
prestige,  and  so  largely  carried  on  among  the 
Armenians,  has  sustained  an  almost  crushing  blow  at 
the  hands  of  the  Turk.  In  the  whirlwind  of  butchery 
and  pillage  nearly  all  the  mission  stations,  from  the 
valley  of  the  Euphrates  to  the  Mediterranean,  have 
shared  the  general  calamity  of  Moslem  violence  and 
destruction.  True  no  American  missionary  has  been 
killed,  but  many  of  them  have  suffered  the  loss  of  all 
their  property,  have  seen  their  students,  converts,  and 
servants  slain  before  their  eyes,  their  flag  insulted  and 
trailed  in  the  dust,  and  they  themselves  have  been 
compelled  to  seek  a  place  of  shelter.  In  Harput  alone 
eight  of  the  twelve  American  buildings  within  the 
inclosure  were  looted  and  burned,  the  loss  being  esti- 
mated at  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.      Many  of  the 


152  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

occupants  were  killed,  and  the  missionaries  barely 
escaped  with  their  lives.  It  must  not  be  supposed 
that  this  was  simpl)-  the  attack  of  a  mob  ;  for  Turkish 
mobs  are  not  equipped  with  artillery.  The  Harput 
institution  of  missionaries  was  assailed  by  Turkish 
soldiers,  who  trained  their  field  pieces  upon  the  build- 
ings. Such  deliberately  planned  official  havoc  is  more 
inexcusable  when  we  remember  that  the  Sultan  had 
given  specific  assurances  to  the  United  States  that  the 
lives  and  property  of  the  missionaries  should  be  pro- 
tected. As  yet  not  a  word  of  apolog}'  nor  a  cent  of 
indemnity  has  been  exacted  from  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment. The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  of  all  the  civi- 
lized nations  the  United  States  has  proved  the  most 
inactive  in  protecting  the  natural  rights  of  its  citizens 
in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  On  this  point  Dr.  Grace  N. 
Kimball,  who  has  labored  for  the  past  few  years  as  a 
missionary  among  the  Armenian  refugees,  makes  this 
assertion,  "  Even  the  American  flag  was  powerless  to 
shield  us  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  protection  of 
British  consuls,  we  would  have  suffered  the  same  fate 
as  the  Armenians."  That  the  missionaries  have 
vested  rights,  property  guarantees  of  protection  dating 
back  to  1830,  and  a  generation  of  work  behind  the 
present,  no  one  will  deny;  yet  it  is  sufficiently  evi- 
dent that  American  citizens  in  Turkey  have  not  been 
protected  nor  their  wrongs  redressed. 

In  the  midst  of  this  violence  and  treachery  the  late 
American  minister  to  Constantinople,  Mr.  Alexander 
Terrell  of  Texas,  cut  a  pitiable  and  shocking 
figure.  His  diplomatic  incompetence  and  ignorance 
of  the    Eastern  situation  on   the  one    hand,    and    his 


154        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

weak,  faltering",  and  pusillanimous  policy  toward  the 
Sultan  on  the  other,  made  him  a  most  unfit  man 
for  such  a  responsible  post  at  such  a  critical  time. 
Brave  and  true  as  I  hold  America  to  be,  she  should 
make  her  "  Stars  and  Stripes "  a  protection  to  her 
people,  her  best  people — the  benefactors  of  my  race  and, 
indeed,  of  humanity.  In  such  a  crisis  both  principle 
and  prudence  demand  a  bold  and  unflinching  course  of 
action.  That  the  Sultan  has  ever  proved  a  persistent 
and  cruel  violator  of  all  his  treaty  obligations  should 
satisfy  common  sense  that  further  promises  would  not  be 
worth  the  breath  that  uttered  them.  He  will  not  yield 
to  reason  or  entreaty,  but  he  has  yielded  and  will  yield 
to  the  argument  of  force.  The  only  sort  of  argument 
for  which  the  grim  tyrant  of  the  Bosphorus  has  any 
respect  is  that  of  ironclads  and  cannon.  After  the 
massacres  of  Syrian  Christians  by  the  Turks  in  i860, 
the  French  citizens  having  suffered,  the  French  crovern- 
meiit  dispatched  a  corps  of  ten  thousand  men  to  Syria  ; 
and  as  a  result  redress  was  obtained  at  once.  Sixty  of 
the  ringleaders  were  put  to  death,  and  the  memory  of 
such  intervention  has  given  security  to  S^ria  and  to 
French  citizens  ever  since.  Unless  the  United  States 
rises  above  its  present  lukevvarmness  and  inefficiency  in 
defending  its  citizens  and  their  interests  at  the  cannon's 
mouth,  as  the  French  did  after  the  massacre  in  i860, 
further  and  worse  outrapfes  will  be  the  result. 

For  many  years  Algerian  pirates  preyed  on  the  com- 
merce of  Christian  nations  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
and  the  powers  of  Europe  dared  not  to  raise  their  arms 
against  them,  when  in  181 5  this  young  America  arose 
and  dealt  them  such  a  blow  that  no  more  robbers  could 


THE   EVANGELICAL   CHURCH.  1 55 

be  seen  on  the  Mediterranean.  Would  that  the  old 
fire  of  heroism  were  rekindled  to-day  in  the  American 
breast  !  I  doubt  not  that,  should  the  United  States 
rise  against  the  Turk,  there  would  not  be  a  nation  in 
Europe  but  would  welcome  its  intervention  as  the 
least  dangerous  solution  of  the  Turkish  question;  for 
this  country  has  no  territory  to  acquire,  no  balance  of 
power  in  Europe  to  break,  no  prestige  to  win. 


SOCIAL  AND  HOME   LIFE. 


"Home  of  my  childhood!   how  affection  clings 
And  [lovers  round  thee  with  iier  seraph  wings! 
Dearer  thy  hills,  though  clad  in  aulunm  brown, 
Than  fairest  summits  which  the  cedars  crown." 

— Oliver  Wendell   Holmes. 

AS  I  turn  to  this  chapter  the  reiiienihrances  of  my 
^  ^  Oriental  home  rise  before  me,  hallowed  and 
strengthened  b}'  time  and  absence.  Over  its  shadows 
and  sunshine  are  thrown  gleams  of  mellow  light  that 
bear  my  lonely  soul  on  the  wings  of  emotion  to  the 
far-awa)'  land  that  rocked  my  cradle.  What  days  of 
sparkling  mirth  !  what  days  of  saddening  gloom  \  Yet 
to  my  longing  heart  the  sunshine  and  shadows  of  home 
are  merged  in  a  heavenly  radiance. 

1  o  )'ou,  ni)'  reader,  I  now  extend  an  invitation  to 
walk  with  me  among  the  scenes  of  my  boyhood.  Our 
people  are  deeply  interested  in  your  bright  coimtry  and 
people,  and  I  am  stire  in  turn  you  would  ^nd  much 
to  interest  you  in  the  manners  and  customs  of  our  old 
and  romantic  land.  Our  culture  and  manners,  perhaps 
not  always  of  the  highest,  are  always  clean  and  respect- 
able ;  our  heroism,  true  ;  our  beliefs,  sincere  ;  and  our 
faults  are  not  crimes,  but  delusions.  Were  our  country 
and  people  free  from  the  iron  grasp  of  Turkish  aliens, 
brighter  homes  and  more  speedy  progress  would  be 
ours.     And  yet,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  power  of 

156 


AN    ARMENIAN    FAMILY — RELATIVES    OF   THE    AllHOR, 


ARMENIAN    CHILDREN. 


158        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

tyranny,  with  all  its  stagnation  and  blight,  has  prac- 
tically exerted  no  influence  in  marring  the  holiness  of 
family  ties.  It  is  certainly  a  lasting  tribute  to  the 
character  of  the  Armenians  that,  after  five  centuries  of 
subjection,  no  social  intercourse  or  intermarriage  has 
been  effected  with  the  Turk. 

Let  us  journey,  then,  through  the  land  of  Asia 
Minor,  where  the  homes  of  these  two  peoples,  though 
standing  side  by  side,  nevertheless  present  the  widest 
contrasts  in  their  inner  life. 

As  the  morninor  liaht  first  touches  the  mountain 
tops,  so  our  glimpses  of  home  life  begin  with  the 
higher  classes.  But  whether  high  or  low,  all  have  to 
pass  through  the  same  filth)-,  zigzag  streets  that  run 
from  everywhere  to  nowhere.  So  thronged  are  they 
with  dogs,  horses,  donkeys,  and  sometimes  with  long 
trains  of  supercilious  camels  and  buffalo  arabas,  that 
you  have  to  challenge  everything  and  elbow  every 
being  for  the  right  of  way.  Above  all,  a  lively  time  is 
expected  with  the  famous  Turkish  dogs  when  they  are 
contending  for  a  bone.  Fortunately,  in  the  portions  of 
the  country  where  the  Armenians  and  Europeans 
dwell  they  have  somewhat  disappeared  from  the 
streets.  Those  you  meet  are  quite  respectful  to  Mo- 
hammedan and  Christian  alike  ;  while  the  old  breed 
would  howl  at  a  Christian,  but  remain  quiet  when  a 
Turk  passed  by.  Even  the  dogs  are  getting  civilized, 
which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  the  bipeds  of  the 
slums. 

Of  the  defunct  dogs  we  may  say  the  redcoats  were 
their  assassins,  and  loaded  walking-sticks,  used  in  the 
night,  the  weapons.     One  English  sea-rover  vowed  he 


A   CHARACTERISTIC    STREET    SCENE, 


l6o  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

would  kill  a  dog  every  night  when  returning  to  ship 
from  his  games.  He  kept  his  word  and  more,  for  when 
unlucky  at  cards  he  would  dispatch  two  or  three  curs  in 
ambling  down  the  hill.  Dogs  became  rapidly  scarce 
on  his  route.  At  length  he  took  to  the  narrow  side 
streets,  and  one  night  a  fellow  friendly  to  dogs — of 
course  a  Turk — waylaid  the  Briton,  and  with  some 
assistance  sent  him  to  his  berth  a  battered  specimen  of 
humanity. 

Besides  the  dogs,  it  is  characteristic  of  Turkish 
streets  to  be  peopled  here  and  there  by  a  careless,  lazy- 
lookinof  set  of  vaofabonds  sunningr  themselves  on  the 
street  corners.  Next  to  tramps  they  are  the  most  ab- 
solutely good-for-nothing  nuisances  on  earth,  without 
an  excuse  for  their  wandering  existence  except  the  fact 
that  they  were  born.  Their  motto  seems  to  be,  "  Grab 
and  eat  as  much  as  you  can,  and  whine."  They  do 
nothing  but  hang  around  anywhere  and  everywhere,  all 
day  and  every  day.  Lucky  for  them  if  they  can  outdo 
some  wandering  dog  in  securing  the  most  shaded  corner 
where  they  may  stretch  their  lazy  bones  in  peace. 
Fruit-sellers,  Turkish  grinders,  and  hamnials,  or  porters, 
are  also  to  be  seen  on  every  hand. 

It  gives  a  strange  effect  to  the  street  scene  to  see  the 
houses  and  yards,  like  castles  or  picturesque  fortifica- 
tions, surrounded  by  solid  black  walls,  varying  in  height 
from  ten  to  twenty-five  feet,  with  a  heavy  gate  before 
each  house  and  an  iron  hammer  suspended  as  a  knocker 
from  its  center.  Most  of  the  residences  are  two-story 
houses,  built  of  sun-dried  brick  around  an  open  court- 
yard, and  plastered  within  and  without.  There  are  few 
stone  buildings  and  still  fewer  of  wood.     Most  of  the 


SOCIAL  AND   HOME   LIFE.  l6l 

houses  have  a  balcony  overlooking  a  tangled  garden, 
with  window  ledges  abloom  with  flowers.  The  roofs 
are  tiled,  and  the  numerous  small  windows  are  closely 
latticed  on  the  outside  with  a  network  of  iron  bars 
arranged  in  pairs.  As  a  rule,  the  residences  are  very 
close  together,  with  a  space  between  them  of  not  more 
than  six  feet,  so  that  a  distant  view  of  the  dwellings 
makes  them  appear  as  though  erected  in  a  block. 

Entering  the  gate,  and  passing  through  the  yard,  we 
come  to  the  house.  In  the  courtyard,  and  in  the  rear 
of  the  building,  there  are  generally  gardens,  with  lofty 
trees  surrounding  the  house  and  overshadowing  it  with 
their  green  branches.  Sparkling  fountains  play  in  the 
rich  sunshine  amid  flower  beds,  exquisite  in  variety 
and  hue  ;  while  the  air  is  perfumed  with  roses  and  made 
melodious  by  the  song  of  the  nightingale.  These  gar- 
den spots  are  found  in  profusion  in  my  birthplace,  the 
city  of  Marsovan,  and  may  be  seen  with  no  less  fre- 
quency in  most  of  the  cities  and  villages.  Indeed,  the 
whole  land  is  one  of  bloom  and  blossom. 

As  we  enter  the  house  we  meet  with  a  most  cordial 
reception  from  the  household,  for  hospitality  and 
kindness  to  strangers  are  the  first  law  in  the  Orient, 
and  are  a  most  pleasing  and  characteristic  feature  of 
Armenian  society.  The  kind  words  and  the  eager 
display  of  hospitality,  each  vying  with  the  other  in 
supplying  your  wants,  form  a  striking  scene  to  an 
American.  Indeed,  our  people  are  the  most  friendly 
of  friends  ;  they  enjoy  life  because  they  make  other 
people  enjoy  it.  Home  is  a  philanthropic  institution 
with  them — so  much  so  that  some  regret  the  introduc- 
tion of  Western  ideas  in  the  founding  of  hospitals  and 


l62  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

orphanages,  since  custom  will  not  allow  a  stranger 
within  the  gates  of  an  Armenian  home  to  suffer  from 
lack  of  food  or  shelter.  He  is  given  a  seat  at  the  table, 
and  to  sup  with  the  master  of  the  house  means  to  lodge 
with  him  and  to  be  furnished  with  slippers  and  night- 
robes.  The  guest  is  expected  to  entertain  all  callers 
with  some  account  of  himself,  his  country,  its  laws, 
reliorion,  manners,  and  customs. 

Interchanoe  of  visits  amongr  neig-hbors  and  friends  is 
the  rule,  for  the  people  love  to  congregate  and  greatly 
enjoy  meeting  together  to  smoke  and  talk  over  their 
affairs.  In  Christian  homes  men  and  women  meet  in 
the  reception  room  ;  but  generally  ladies,  gentlemen, 
and  children  form  separate  groups  and' cliat  on  general 
topics,  which  vary  according  to  the  social  position  and 
intelligence  of  the  company.  In  a  Turkish  house  there 
are  two  apartments,  the  hai'emlik  and  selanilik — the 
former  the  ladies'  reception  room  and  the  latter  for 
gentlemen. 

Holidays  and  long  winter  evenings  are  usually  de- 
voted to  a  pleasant  and  ancient  pastime,  which  is  indeed 
one  of  the  happiest  features  of  Oriental  life.  The 
master  of  the  house  opens  the  door  of  the  house  and 
welcomes  the  guest  with  numerous  expressive  gestures 
of  whole-hearted  hospitality.  In  the  immediate  en- 
trance of  the  house  there  is  a  place  where  the  etiquette 
of  the  country  requires  you  to  remove  your  shoes  and 
put  on  slippers  before  entering  the  inner  apartments  ; 
but  hats,  like  the  bonnets  of  American  ladies,  are  not 
necessarily  taken  off.  After  exchanging  graceful  salu- 
tations, formal  civilities,  and  inquiries  after  each  other's 
health,  the  guest   is  ushered   into   a  cheery  court  and 


164        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

thence  into  a  reception  room,  where  coffee,  the  univer- 
sal beverage  of  the  Levant,  is  served  on  a  silver  tray  in 
tiny  goblets  like   egg-cups.      The  square  room  which 
the   company  occupies    is   comfortably    fitted   and    ar- 
ranged with  a  profusion  of  divans,  embroidered  cushions, 
and  mattresses  for  sitting  and  reclining,  and  perhaps  a 
few  chairs.      The  floor  is  covered  with  rich   Oriental 
rugs,  while  curtains   and  shawls  of  fine  texture   hang 
about  the  sides  and  across  the  ceiling.     In  the  center  of 
the  room  is  placed  a  stove  or  a  charcoal  brazier.     The 
room    is  lighted  with  bright  lamps,  the    old-fashioned 
tallow  candle  or  olive-oil  wick  havincr  been  lone  aban- 
doned.     The  lady  callers  all  cluster  about  the  genial 
hostess,  who  sits  by  her  babe  singing,  soft  and  low,  the 
sweet,  simple  cradle   song ;  while  the   men  may  be  en- 
gaged  in  a  discussion   of  current   events,  though   they 
often   exchange   remarks  with   tlie   ladies.      The  little 
folks  have  a  lively  time  by  themselves  in  much  the  same 
kind  of    merry,   innocent  frolic  that    is  the  delight  of 
American  boys  and  girls.     Oriental  children,  too,  have 
their  marbles,  their  skipping-rope,  and  little  toy  plows, 
into  which  cats  and  kittens  are  harnessed  in  play.      Lit- 
tle girls  with   rosy  faces  are  clustered  with  their  dolls 
and  kittens  around  the  good  old  grandmother,  who  tells 
them   riddles  and  amusing    stories,    while  the    white- 
bearded  patriarch,  bowed  with  years,  begins  to  recount 
anecdotes   of 'his  bygone  days.      The  remarks  of  the 
venerable  man  are  always  interesting,  yet  they  reveal 
no  progress  in  the  lapse  of  time  ;  for  the  Oriental  life 
and   customs   have  been   preserved  with  little  change 
from  a  remote  antiquity.      The  house  servant  is  busied 
with  such  functions  as  arranging  the  shoes  in  pairs,  that 


SOCIAL  AND   HOME  LIFE.  l6$ 

the  guests  may  easily  find  them  when  departing.  After 
games  and  conversation,  the  company  indulge  in  ciga- 
rettes, coffee,  sweetmeats,  and  the  bubbling  narghileh, 
or  flexible  rosewater  pipe,  a  smoking  apparatus  very 
similar  to  the  hookah  of  Hindostan,  which  is  always 
filled  with  Shiraz  tobacco.  Time  wears  pleasantly  on, 
and  the  guests  are  sure  to  depart  late,  nearly  always 
with  the  satisfaction  of  having  had  an  enjoyable 
time. 

A  cratherinor  like  the  one  described  is  a  oreat  time 
for  story-telling.  Many  capital  anecdotes  are  current 
among  the  people,  and  nearly  all  have  a  moral.  Nasr- 
ed-din-Hodja,  a  teacher  and  notorious  wag,  who  is  the 
ideal  hero  or  victim  of  many  Munchausen-like  tales,  is 
supposed  to  live  in  Bagdad.  Several  stories  concern- 
ing him  are  worth  recording  in  English.  For  the 
translation  of  the  following  I  am  indebted  to  Hon. 
Samuel  S,  Cox,  the  late  American  Minister  to  Turkey  : 

A  belated  beggar  knocked  at  the  Hodja's  door. 

"What  do  you  want?"  he  called  down  from  an 
upper  window. 

"  Come  down,  good  Hodja,  and  I  will  tell  you," 
replied  the  mendicant. 

Having  descended  and  opened  the  front  door,  the 
beggar  asked  for  alms. 

"Come  upstairs,"  said  the  Hodja,  and  the  mendi- 
cant was  taken  to  the  top  floor. 

"  I  am  sorry,  poor  man,"  said  the  Hodja,  "  but  I  have 
no  alms  for  you." 

"Why  did  you  not  tell  me  so  at  the  door?"  inquired 
the  beggar  angrily. 


l66  THE    TURK   AND   THE   LAND    OF   HAIG. 

"  Why  did  you  not  tell  me  what  you  wanted  before 
I  came  down  ?"  retorted  the  Hodja. 

One  day  the  Hodja  was  too  lazy  to  preach  his  usual 
sermon  at  the  mosque.  He  simply  addressed  himself 
to  the  congregation,  saying  : 

"  Of  course  you  know,  O  faithful  Mussulmans,  what 
I  am  going  to  say?" 

The  congregation  cried  out  with  one  voice: 

"  No,  Hodja,  we  do  not  know." 

"  Then,  if  you  do  not  know,  I  have  nothing  to  say 
to  you,"  replied  the  Hodja,  and  left  the  pulpit. 

Next  time  he  again  addressed  his  congregation, 
saying  : 

"Know  ye,  O  faithful  Mussulmans,  what  I  am  going 
to  say  to  you  ?  " 

Fearing  that  if,  as  on  the  previous  time,  they  said 
"  No."  the  Hodja  would  leave  them  again  without 
a  sermon,  all  cried  : 

"  Yes,  Hodja,  we  do  know." 

"  Then,  if  you  know  what  I  am  going  to  say,"  quietly 
remarked  the  Hodja,  "of  course,  there  is  no  need  of 
my  saying  it,"  and  he  again  stepped  down  from  the 
pulpit,  to  the  consternation  of  the  congregation. 

A  third  time,  the  Hodja  again  put  his  question  : 

"  Know  ye,  O  faithful  Mussulmans,  what  I  am  going 
to  preach  to  you  ?" 

The  congregation,  determined  not  to  be  disappointed 
again,  took  counsel  on  the  question.  Accordingly 
some  of  them  replied,  "  No,  Hodja,  we  do  not  know," 
while  others  cried,  "  Yes,  Hodja,  we  do  know." 

"Very  well,  then,"    said    the    Hodja,   "as  there  are 


^^. 


l68        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

some  of  you  who  do  know,  and  others  who  do  not  know 
what  I  am  going-  to  say,  let  those  who  do  know  tell  it 
to  those  who  do  not  know,"  and  quickly  left  the  pulpit. 

"  O  Hodja  !  when  will  the  end  of  the  world  come  ?  " 

"Ask  me  sometliing  difficult;  that  is  quite  easy  to 

answer,"  is  the  calm    reply.      "  When   my  wife  dies    it 

will  be  the  end  of  half  the  world ;  when   I  die  it  will 

be  the  end  of  the  w4iole  world." 

The  Hodja  borrows  from  a  friend  a  large  copper 
vessel  in  wdiich  to  do  his  washing.  A  few  days  after- 
ward the  vessel  is  returned  clean,  washed  and  polished. 
Inside  of  it  is  another,  but  much  smaller,  copper  vessel. 

"What  is  this,  Hodja?"  asks  his  friend,  "I  lend 
you  one  vessel  and  you  bring  me  back  two  !  " 

"  It  is  very  curious,"  says  the  Hodja.  "  It  appears 
that  your  vessel,  while  in  my  possession,  must  have 
given  birth  to  a  baby  vessel.  Of  course  both  belong 
equally  to  you." 

"Oh,  thank  you,  good  Hodja,"  says  the  man,  laugh- 
ing, and  without  more  parley  agrees  to  take  back  both 
vessels. 

Some  time  after  this  the  Hodja  again  applies  for 
the  loan  of  the  large  vessel — "  the  mother  vessel,"  as 
he  describes  it.  The  demand  is  readily  granted.  Be- 
fore leaving,  the  Hodja  inquires  for  the  health  of  the 
"  baby  vessel."  He  expresses  pleasure  at  hearing  that 
it  is  doing  extremely  well. 

A  week,  then  a  month,  elapses,  but  no  Hodja  appears 
to  return  the  borrowed  vessel.  The  proprietor,  at 
length  losing  patience,  goes  himself  to  obtain  it. 


SOCIAL   AND   HOME   LIFE.  169 

"  Very  sorry,"  says  Hodja,  "but  your  copper  vessel 

is  dead." 

"  Dead,  Hodja  !  "  cries  the  other  in  surprise  ;  "  what 

do  you  mean  ?" 

"Just  what  I  say,"  replies  the  Hodja,  "your  vessel  is 

dead." 

"  Nonsense,  Hodja  !"  says  the  man— irritated  at  the 
Hodja's    quiet    manner;    "how   can    a   copper   vessel 

die?" 

"  Read  up  your  natural  history,  my  good  friend,' 
answers  the  imperturbable,  puffing  quietly  at  his  long 
pipe,  "and  you  will  see  that  everything  that  gives 
birth  to  a  child  must  inevitably  succumb  in  due  course 
to  the  fate  of  all  mortals.  You  were  willing  enough 
to  believe  that  your  vessel  had  given  birth  to  a  'baby 
vessel.'  I  do  not  see,  therefore,  why  you  should 
now  doubt  my  word  as  to  its  being  dead." 

One  night,  before  retiring,  the  Hodja  said  to  his  wife  : 
"  If  it  rain  to-morrow,  I  shall  go  to  my  field  ;  if  it  does 
not  rain,  I  shall  go  to  my  vineyard." 

"  Say  '  If  it  please  God,'  Hodja,"  suggested  his  wife. 
"  Whether  it  please  God  or  not,"  replied  the  Hodja  ; 
"  I  shall  go  to  one  or  the  other." 

"  Hodja,"  said  his  wife,  "  say  '  If  it  please  God.' " 
"  Nothing  of  the  kind,"  said  the  Hodja  ;  "  I  shall  go." 
Next  day  it  was  not  raining,  and  the  Hodja  started 
to  go  to  his  vineyard.  He  did  not  go  far,  however, 
before  he  was  stopped  by  the  king's  troopers,  who  com- 
pelled him  to  work  all  day  in  repairing  the  roads,  and 
it  was  quite  late  at  night  when  he  was  set  free.  By  the 
time    he  had  arrived  at  his    house  everyone  was  fast 


170        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

asleep.      His  wife,  putting  her  head  out  of  the  window, 
asked  who  it  was. 

"  Wife,"  repHed  the  Hodja,  "  if  it  please  God,  it  is  I." 

A  friend  calls  on  the  Hodja  to  borrow  his  donkey. 

"Very  sorry,"  says  the  Hodja,  who  does  not  want  to 
lend  the  animal,  "but  the  donkey  is  not  here;  1  have 
let  him  out  for  the  day." 

Unfortunately,  just  at  that  moment  the  donkey 
begins  to  bray  loudly,  thus  giving  the  direct  lie  to  the 
Hodja. 

"  How  is  this,  Hodja  ?"  says  his  friend.  "You  say 
tiie  donkey  is  away,  and  here  he  is  braying  in  the 
stable." 

The  Hodja,  nothing  daunted,  replies  in  a  grave 
manner  : 

"  My  dear  sir,  please  do  not  demean  yourself  so  low 
as  to  believe  the  donkey  rather  than  myself — a  fellow- 
man  and  a  venerable  Hodja  with  a  long  gray  beard." 

The  Hodja  used  to  teach  in  the  parish  school.  He 
had  taught  his  pupils  that  whenever  he  happened  to 
sneeze  they  should  all  stand  up  and,  clapping  their 
hands  together,  cry  out,  "  God  grant  you  long  life, 
Hodja!" 

This  the  pupils  regularly  did  whenever  the  Hodja 
sneezed. 

One  day  the  bucket  gets  loose  and  falls  into  the 
well  of  the  schoolhouse.  As  the  pupils  are  afraid 
to  go  down  into  the  well  to  fetch  up  the  bucket,  the 
Hodja  undertakes  the  task.  He  accordingly  strips,  and 
tying  a  rope  to  his  waist,  asks  his  pupils  to  lower  him 


SOCIAL  AND    HOME   LIFE.  l?^ 

carefully  into  the  well  and  pull  him  up  again  when  he 
gives  the  sign  .1.  The  Hodja  goes  down,  and  having 
caught  the  bucket,  shouts  to  his  pupils  to  pull  him  up 
again,  but  when  they  have  drawn  him  nearly  out  of  the 
well  he  suddenly  sneezes.  At  this  the  pupils  imme- 
diately let  go  the  rope,  begin  to  clap  their  hands  to- 
gether, and  shout  down  the  well,  "  God  grant  you  long 
life,  Hodja!" 

In  many  Armenian  homes  pianos  and  organs  are 
coming  into  use,  but  they  are  not  as  yet  common.  Our 
young  men  play  the  flute  with  exquisite  expression. 
The  old-fashioned  bagpipe  of  the  Orient  is  a  peculiar 
instrument,  the  bag  being  of  sheepskin,  with  a  small 
mouthpiece,  and  the  instrument  being  a  combination 
of  covvhorn  and  three  reeds  with  holes  in  them.  The 
dulcimer  is  of  Oriental  origin,  and  has  to  some  extent 
taken  the  place  occupied  by  the  pianoforte  in  an  Amer- 
ican home.  The  music  of  the  Orient  is  characterized 
by  a  plaintivenesss  quite  charming  to  the  ear,  which  is 
due  to  the  frequent  use  of  the  minor  keys. 

Now  comes  our  dinner  time  !  Will  you  not  come 
with  us,  my  reader,  for  it  gives  us  peculiar  delight  to 
have  Occidentals  accompany  us  to  the  table.  I  assure 
you  our  Armenian  cuisine  is  suited  to  Western  palates, 
and  our  people  well  understand  that  a  man's  stomach 
is  an  easy  avenue  to  his  heart.  First  hands  are  washed, 
and  then  all  are  seated  around  the  table,  with  brightly 
polished  brazen  plates,  neatly  folded  napkins,  and 
spoons  of  boxwood  and  tortoise  shell  by  the  side  of 
each.     Soup  comes  first ;  then  p'lav,  a  dish  resembling 


172  THE   TURK   AND   THE    LAND    OF    HAIG. 

porridge  ;  then  meat,  cooked  in  various  Oriental  styles, 
similar  in  general  to  those  of  France,  but  lambs  are 
roasted  whole  in  Homeric  fashion  ;  then  olives,  cheese, 
and  fruit.  Lastly  come  Jialwah,  or  sweetmeats  from 
Smyrna  and  Scio.  After  coffee-sipping  and  chibouk- 
puffing  the  ceremony  of  eating  comes  to  a  close. 
Wines  of  the  rarest  vintage  are  to  be  found  on  the 
table  during  all  the  courses. 


SUPERSTITIONS. 

Among  the  low  and  ignorant,  where  popular  educa- 
tion is  of  a  meager  sort,  superstition  has  full  sway — es- 
pecially among  the  Turks.      Many  of  their  beliefs  are 
amusing  to  strangers,  though  Orientals  believe  in  these 
absurdities    as    firmly    as    they    do    in     religion.     For 
instance,  they  deem  it  a  serious  matter  to  be  the  vic- 
tim of  an  evil  e)'e,   though  fortunately  a  remedy  has 
been  invented  for  every  emergency.    Garlic  and  a  word 
from  the  Koran  are  antidotes  for  the  evil  eye.      Dog 
bread  is  used  as  a  charm,  and  blue  beads  on  horses, 
donkeys,  and  buffaloes  are  charms  against  the  malice  of 
the    envious    ancl    evil-eyed.      That    nothing    must    be 
wasted  that  can  be  used  as  food  by  dog  or  fish  is  a 
superstition  tending  to  promote  economy.      You  brino- 
bad  luck  by  entering  a  house  with  the  right  foot.     The 
darkness  is  peopled  by  creatures  of  dim,  unspeakable 
shapes  from  the  regions  of  hell.      For  astrological  cal- 
culations some  days  are  unlucky,  and  even  the  Sultan 
himself  will  postpone  an   interview    if  it  falls   on    an 
unlucky   day.      Sometimes  a    long-forgotten    and    lost 
grave  of  a  saint  suddenly  becomes  a  reputed  center  of 


SOCIAL   ANL>    HOME    LIFE.  173 

miracles.  Someone  will  tell  his  neighbors  that  while 
crossin<T  the  irrave  of  a  certain  saint  his  disease  at  once 
departed  froni  him  ;  and  although  no  one  knew  before 
whether  the  grave  was  that  of  a  saint  or  a  devil,  or 
whether  the  originator  of  the  report  is  worthy  of  con- 
fidence or  not,  the  story  goes  with  lightning  speed, 
bringing-  throngs  of  the  sick  and  infirm  Irom  the  re- 
motest parts  to  the  magic  mound. 

When  at  home  1  scorned  and  laughed  at  such  odd 
spectacles,  with  a  sense  of  mingled  contempt  and  pity, 
ijut  since  I  have  seen  Americans  throng  about  the  for- 
tune-teller, I  have  had  more  charity  for  our  Oriental 
credulity. 

EDUCATION. 

Compulsor\'  education  is  unknown  in  Asia  Minor. 
As  a  rule,  the  government  renders  no  assistance  to  non- 
Mohammedan  schools,  so  that  each  nationality  has  its 
own  schools  quite  as  distinct  as  its  churches.  Of  the 
Armenian  higher  institutions  and  colleges  we  have 
spoken   elsewliere. 

Mohammedanism  teaches  that  secular  education  is 
subordinate  to,  and  dependent  upon,  religious  instruc- 
tion. Consequently,  all  the  schools  of  early  times  were 
attached  to  mosques  and  under  the  direction  of  the 
Ulemas,  or  religious  teachers.  Education  independent 
of  religious  instruction  did  not  begin  until  1846.  Those 
who  complete  the  course  of  study  in  the  higher  schools 
are  granted  a  degree  and  gi\en  a  mastership  in  a  i)ri- 
mary  school,  but  several  years  more  of  training  are 
required  of  those  who  wish  to  be  Ulemas  and  teach  in 
the  mosques.     The  most  proficient  students  are  trained 


ir.     ^ 
5     ^ 


SOCIAL  AND   HOME   LIFE.  175 

in  the  legal  profession,  for  much  of  Turkish  law  is 
founded  on  the  Koran.  The  revenue  for  the  support 
of  this  system  of  education  is  derived  from  the  church 
lands  of  the  empire.  National  schools  are  to  be  found 
in  all  the  principal  cities.  In  Constantinople,  for  in- 
stance, the  Armenians  alone  have  over  fifty  schools  for 
both  sexes,  but  many  of  the  small  villages  have  none. 

The  Mohammedan  boy's  entrance  into  school,  at  the 
age  of  seven,  is  a  festive  occasion.  The  whole  school 
goes  to  the  home  of  the  lad,  who  is  placed  on  a  richly 
caparisoned  donkey  ;  then,  formed  in  double-file  pro- 
cession, they  escort  the  young  student  to  the  school- 
house,  singing  songs.  This  is  certainly  a  beautiful 
custom,  and  tends  to  impress  on  the  minds  of  the 
young  the  importance  of  this  new  epoch  in  life.  These 
Turkish  common  schools  present  a  very  singular  scene 
to  a  stranger.  The  pupils  are  all  seated  cross-legged 
on  the  bare  marble  pavement  in  the  porch  of  the 
mosque,  formed  in  semicircular  clusters  around  the 
hodja,  or  teacher.  The  hodja,  as  a  rule,  is  an  old  man 
with  a  white  beard,  who  holds  in  his  hand  an  extremely 
long  stick,  which  reaches  to  all  parts  of  the  school. 
As  he  is  quite  old  and  too  lazy  to  move  from  his  seat 
in  case  of  mischief  among  the  pupils,  he  stretches  this 
unmerciful  stick  over  the  unruly  ones.  He  is  asleep 
nearly  half  the  time,  and,  on  opening  his  eyes,  he  often 
finds  the  entire  school  a  playground  of  wild  disorder, 
but  his  long  stick  soon  establishes  peace  and  order.  I 
remember  many  stories  of  how  these  young  students 
got  even  with  their  patriarchal  teacher  by  anointing 
his  head  and  whiskers  with  oil  and  wax  while  he  was  in 
his  usual  sleep  in  the  schoolroom,  and  of  what  a  time 


176        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

he  frequently  had  to  find  his  stolen  stick.  The 
strangest  feature  of  these  Turkish  schools  is  the  manner 
of  studying.  All  read  their  lessons  aloud  in  shrill  and 
deafening  voices,  and  recite  at  the  same  time  in  a  loud 
monotone.  When  I  passed  by  a  mosque  where  these 
Turkish  schools  are  held  I  used  to  cover  my  ears. 


THE    BAZAAR. 

An  Oriental  bazaar  is  a  mart  of  luxury,  a  vast  shop 
of  wonders,  a  labyrinth  of  curiosities,  which  has  always 
'been  a  source  of  interest  and  entertainment  to  those 
who  are  strangers  to  Eastern  life  ;  particularly  the 
bazaars  of  Constantinople,  for  here  all  antagonistic 
races,  creeds,  and  tongues,  with  every  shade  of  com- 
plexion, in  an  infinite  variety  of  costumes,  are  mixed 
and  mingled — not  as  we  see  them  at  an  international 
exposition,  but  in  the  full  swing  of  real  life.  The 
omnipresent  Jews  are  here,  with  their  short  stature  and 
long,  attenuated  countenances.  Bronze-colored  Arabs, 
with  keen  coal-black  eyes,  in  their  flowing  robes  and 
loose  trousers,  singularly  contrast  with"  the  Mongolian 
negroes,  with  curly  hair  and  round  black  faces.  The 
Aryan  group  is  represented  by  Armenians  and  by  many 
Europeans  of  well-bred,  dignified  carriage  and  uni- 
formity of  dress.  Persians  in  their  sheepskin  caps; 
keen-eyed  Greeks,  cadaverous  and  proud ;  with  the 
steady,  stalwart  sons  of  America,  complete  the  motley 
congregation — except,  indeed,  for  its  predominant 
element,  the  red-faced,  indolent  Turk.  The  babel  of 
languages,  the  rush  and  crush  of  carriages,  dogs,  and 
busy  people  do  not  affect  his  cool,  calm  disposition  or 


178  THE   TURK  AND   THE   LAND   OP   HAIG. 

quicken  his  steps !  For  Mohammed  has  said,  "  To 
hasten  is  deviHsh."  His  turbaned  head  is  filled  with 
pride  that  this  gx^2X  pot-pourri  oi  commerce  and  scenic 
enchantment  is,  in  some  sense,  his. 

Every  avenue  of  the  bazaar  is  appropriated  to  a 
particular  branch  of  commerce.  There  are,  for 
instance,  the  shoe  bazaar  ;  the  armory  bazaar,  where 
weapons  of  almost  every  period  and  nation  are  exposed 
for  sale,  each  occupying  a  separate  avenue  or  bezes- 
ta7i.  The  avenue  of  money-changers  and  bankers,  a 
trade  almost  entirely  monopolized  by  Armenians,  is  a 
glittering  scene  where  jewels,  turquoises,  pearls, 
brilliants,  and  the  most  costly  gems  in  the  world  are  in 
store.  The  embroidery  and  shawl  bazaars  present  a 
most  gay  and  novel  appearance.  There  hang  Broussa 
silks,  Genoa  velvets,  European  satins,  hangings  of 
Tyrian  tapestry,  shawls  from  the  goats  of  Tiiibet, 
Koran-inscribed  Damascus  sabers,  and  rich  scarfs  from 
the  costly  looms  of  Persia  and  Mecca,  vying  with 
each  other  in  beauty  of  design  and  richness  of  color. 
These,  of  all  the  bazaars,  have  an  air  the  most  Oriental. 
Let  us  approach  this  one  midway,  where  the  stufTs 
seem  particularly  rich.  Ah  !  the  aristocratic  tradesman 
has  already  a  customer — an  American,  certainly,  from 
the  particularly  frank  and  natural  bearing  ;  a  Westerner, 
I  should  say,  from  the  attire — perhaps  a  Chicagoan. 
Here  are  the  fifteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  face  to 
face.  The  Oriental  who,  of  all  Orientals,  has  never 
emerged  from  the  Middle  Ages  ;  the  Occidental  who, 
of  all  his  brethren,  has  his  foot  most  firmly  planted  on 
the  threshold  of  a  new  era.  But  the  matter  of  sellino- 
and    buying    in  the  Orient  is  very  different  from  the 


SOCIAL  AND    HOME   LIFE.  I79 

rapid  business  transactions  of  Western  nations.  Turkey 
is  not  a  country  of  fixed  prices,  and  a  person  must 
bargain  for  everything  he  intends  to  purchase. 
Here  one  must  keep  a  sharp  lookout,  both  upon  the 
quality  of  the  article  he  would  purchase  and  the  price 
he  shall  pa)',  for,  with  the  Mussulman,  to  get  the 
best  of  the  bargain  has  no  possible  moral  significance, 
and  is  merely  an  intellectual  feat.  The  storekeeper 
asks  three  or  four  times  more  than  the  real  worth  of 
an  article  ;  and  the  buyer  is  never  supposed  to  pay 
the  prices  asked  him  in  the  first  instance,  but  he  must 
engage  in  professional  jabber  for  an  unconscionable 
length  of  time  to  develop  and  settle  a  bargain.  To 
the  merchant  selling  is  a  stilted,  punctilious  ceremony. 
To  the  customer  buying  is  a  necessary  act,  to  perform 
with  the  same  freedom  and  naturalness  as  eating  or 
breathing. 

"  How  much  will  you  take  for  that  shawl  ? " 

"  Does  his  lordship  refer  to  this  delicate  Persian 
fabric  ?" 

Often  the  Turks  apply  titles  of  distinction  to  Ameri- 
can purchasers,  knowing  only  too  well  how  susceptible 
they  are  to  this  subtle  form  of  flattery.  If  they  ever 
"  talk  shop  "  at  home,  however,  I  have  no  doubt  they 
confess  it  works  best  with  the  women. 

"  I  mean  that  reddish,  buck-colored  thing — here — 
this,"  pulling  it  down  rather  unceremoniously. 

"Your  lordship  will  observe  that  it  is  very 
delicate." 

"  I  don't  think  it  will  wear  very  well,  but  what  do 
you  ask  for  it  ?" 

"  It  has  lasted  already  more  than  a  century.      It  is 


l80  THE   TURK   AND   THE    LAND    OF   HAIG. 

Still  fresh.  The  gentleman's  great-granddaughter 
should  most  certainly  wear  it." 

"  Not  married,  my  good  friend  ;  it's  for  a  sister,  you 
know.  What's  the  price  of  it  ?  Is  it  really  a  hundred 
years  old  ?  " 

Again  the  w^ly  Turk  has  touched  a  weak  spot,  for 
the  newest  of  nations  has  proverbially  the  greatest 
fondness  for  old  things. 

"  Oh,  your  lordship  is  from  a  new  country  !  I  have 
carpets  here  that  have  been  slept  on  by  ten  generations 
of  noble  blood.  Will  the  gentleman  look  at  this  rug 
of  Bokhara  ?" 

"  Not  now,"  says  the  pertinacious  Yankee.  "  How 
much  is  this  shawl  ?" 

The  Oriental  sees  that  the  next  move  is  to  name 
a  startling  price,  so  he  says  indifferent!}',  "  Pive  hun- 
dred dollars  is  a  small  sum,  your  lordship." 

The  Turkish  trader  guesses  your  nationality  at 
a  glance,  and  is  always  ready  to  deal  with  )ou  in  your 
own  coin,  and  to  talk  in  its  fiofures. 

"Five  hundred  dollars!"  exclaims  the  Westerner. 
"  You  might  as  well  say  five  thousand." 

Oriental  dignity  is  offended  at  this.  The  turbaned 
Turk  draws  himself  up  proudly,  and  turns  to  arrange 
his  wares,  saying  quietly,  "  The  gentleman  may  take 
the  shawl  ;  it  is  his — a  free  gift." 

Then  the  Yankee  tries  his  q-ame,  too.  As  if  tired  of 
dickering  for  the  shawl,  he  picks  up  a  Damascus  blade 
lying  beneath  a  pile  of  tumbled  silks. 

"  What's  this  ?" 

"  A  blade  of  Damascus." 

"  Is  it  a  ofood  one  ?  " 


l82        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

"  Let  his  lordship  bend  the  tip  and  hilt  together,  so  ; 
bend  it  farther,  if  you  choose.  It  will  never  break. 
Swords  of  this  kind  are  not  made  to-day." 

"This  is  old,  too,  I  suppose?" 

"  The  Sultan's  signature  which  you  will  find  on  the 
hilt  is  that  of  the  great  Sultan  Saladin,  with  whom 
the  Franks  fought  for  the  tomb  of  the  prophet  Jesus." 

"But  it  bends  so  easily;  you  couldn't  kill  a  man 
with  it." 

"  The  gentleman  may  try." 

"On  myself?"  laughing. 

"  On  his  humble  servant." 

These  extravagant  remarks  of  the  Turks  are  not 
jests,  but  the  mere  forms  of  politeness,  and  expected  to 
be  taken  seriously. 

"  What  are  these  marks  engraved  on  this  blade  ?  " 

"Verses  from  the  Koran,  promising  reward  to  those 
who  die  in  battle  fio-htinor  for  Allah."  Then,  under  his 
breath,  and  making  a  slight  salute,  "  There  is  no  God 
but  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet." 

The  Westerner  is  by  this  time  convinced  that  his 
deflection  from  the  main  point  is  of  no  avail.  The 
Turk  will  go  on  forever  about  the  Damascus  blade, 
apparently  quite  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  there  has 
been  any  talk  of  buying  a  Persian  shawl.  If  the  buyer 
wants  the  shawl  he  must  come  back  to  it  himself.  He 
does  so  in  his  characteristically  abrupt  way  : 

"  Well,  how  much  have  I  got  to  pay  you  for  this 
shawl?" 

"  His  lordship  is  a  gentleman.  He  evidently  wants 
the  shawl  greatly.  I  will  part  with  my  treasure  for 
four  hundred  dollars." 


SOCIAL  AND   HOME   LIFE.  183 

"  I  will  give  you  one  hundred  dollars." 

"  The  gentleman  is  jesting.  Some  Persian  woman 
toiled  twenty  years,  perhaps,  to  complete  this  wonderful 
fabric.     Such  articles  are  the  work  of  a  lifetime." 

The  American  has  taken  out  his  money.  He  counts 
out  one  hundred  dollars  and  says  nothing. 

"  His  lordship  wouldn't  have  me  the  loser  on  his 
account.  It  is  eight  years  now  that  I  have  kept  this 
shawl  in  my  shop,  waiting  for  a  purchaser  wealthy 
enough  and  worthy  to  carry  it  away.  I  must  have 
three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars." 

**  We  are  wasting  time,  my  friend,"  says  the  for- 
eigner, who  seems  somewhat  experienced.  '*  You 
know  you  will  sell  this  article  for  much  less  than  that, 
so  why  not  name  your  price  ?  " 

"  Camels  brought  the  delicate  fabric  over  many  miles 
of  desert,  a  long  and  weary  journey.  I  have  given  the 
shawl  to  the  gentleman,  but  he  would  not  accept  it. 
I  think  he  can  easily  give  me  three  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  for  it." 

"  I  am  a  good  ways  from  home,  and  if  I  get  rid  of 
all  my  money  how  shall  I  get  back  ?"  uneasily  ;  but  his 
countenance  does  not  change  its  expression  nor  his 
manner  descend  to  haste. 

"  By  the  beard  of  the  Prophet,  it  has  cost  me  more. 
I  must  be  in  need  of  my  bread  before  I  could  part  with 
so  rare  an  article  for  such  a  price.  I  can  show  you 
shawls  for  that  figure,  but  I  could  not  sell  this  one  for 
less  than  three  hundred  dollars." 

From  this  time  on  the  abatement  of  price  is  by 
smaller  and  smaller  sums,  until  it  goes  down  a  dollar 
at  a  time. 


184  THE   TURK  AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

"  His  lordship  is  indeed  in  a  strange  land.  The 
Prophet  bids  us  be  kind  to  strangers.  I  would  sell 
it  to  the  gentleman  for  two  hundred  and  seventy-five 
dollars." 

"  My  friend,  I  have  told  you  how  much  I  will  give. 
You  see  it  here.      I  cannot  give  more." 

He  holds  the  money  under  the  glittering  black  eyes 
of  the  trader.  He,  too,  knows  his  antagonist's  weak 
point.  The  glistening  coin  is  a  temptation.  The 
Oriental  fingers  are  working  eagerly.  Suf^ce  it  to 
say,  the  Turk  will  move  steadily  downward  on  his 
figures,  but  at  his  own  gait.  He  cannot  be  hurried  by 
importunity  or  indifference,  by  argument  or  by  direct 
appeal.  Moreover,  he  will  never  come  quite  to  his 
antagonist's  figure,  but  if  the  Yankee  is  a  good  waiter, 
as  this  one  seems  to  be,  he  will  doubtless  get  the  article, 
say  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  ;  and  when  this 
bargain  is  completed,  the  Oriental  will  be  ready  to 
spend  another  tranquil  hour  in  selling  him  a  rug  from 
Smyrna  or  a  scarf  from  Syria. 

THE    FAIR    SEX. 

One  of  the  questions  most  frequently  asked  me  by 
the  young  people  of  this  country  is  concerning  the 
courtship  and  marriage  of  our  Eastern  youth.  The 
frequency  of  this  question  has  led  me  to  conclude  that 
this  is  a  favorite  theme  of  young  Americans. 

Oriental  harems  have  been  the  basis  of  many  a 
delusive  fiction,  for  the  secluded  privacy  of  their  indoor 
life  has  thrown  about  them  the  charm  of  mystery. 
Islamism    does  not  allow  women   to  appear  in   public 


:.\. 


:^  r 


^a^tl 


^^ 


.*^. 


?^« 


A  TURKISH    LADY   OF   RANK. 


l86        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

save  when  they  are  closely  veiled  ;  and  even  at  their 
homes  their  apartments  are  entirely  separated  from 
those  to  which  male  callers  are  admitted.  For  centuries 
the  women  of  the  harem,  isolated  from  society,  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  outside  world,  except  what  they  saw 
in  their  limited  field  of  observation  or  heard  from  the 
men  of  their  own  household  ;  for  in  the  mosque  and  in 
public  conveyances,  as  well  as  at  home,  they  are  kept 
in  special  apartments.  What  a  contrast  to  the  Ameri- 
can woman,  who  is  a  queen  in  her  own  land  by  right  of 
her  independent  birth — that  heritage  of  every  true-born 
American  citizen  !  Aishe,  Mohammed's  wife,  is  said  to 
have  originated  the  custom  of  seclusion,  and  the  tra- 
ditions and  customs  of  centuries  do  not  readily  yield  to 
innovation.  The  Arabic  word  harem  is  synonomous 
with  the  English  word  "home"  and  means  "secret" 
or  "  forbidden." 

Turkish  women  sometimes  disregard  the  law  and 
escape  in  groups  to  shady  nooks  and  glens,  throw  aside 
their  veils,  and  have  a  right  good  time.  A  Swiss 
traveler  relates  that  in  a  narrow  lane  of  Constantinople 
he  met  a  Mohammedan  lady  so  enrobed  that  he  could 
see  nothing  of  her  but  the  tips  of  her  fingers  and  her 
sparkling  black  eyes.  As  she  was  followed  by  female 
slaves,  she  looked  about  to  see  that  none  of  the  faith- 
ful were  in  sight,  then  pulled  down  her  veil,  exposing 
a  face  of  rare  beauty,  and  laughed  merrily  at  the  sur- 
prise she  had  given  a  Christian. 

Those  alone  are  esteemed  the  "  upper  ten  "  of  the 
Orient,  the  model  wives  of  the  East,  who  are  confined 
to  their  own  homes,  devoted  to  the  care  of  their 
children.      Happy  indeed  is  she  who  finds  herself  the 


SOCIAL   AND   HOME   LIFE.  1 87 

one  wife  of  an  affectionate  husband  !  The  practice  of 
polygamy  among  the  Turks,  though  somewhat 
exaggerated,  nevertheless  does  exist,  and  its  very 
existence  is  an  evil  in  itself  and  a  most  crying  reproach 
upon  social  and  public  decency  and  morals.  Nothing 
can  be  more  encouraging  than  the  gradual  disappear- 
ance of  the  custom,  for  whoever  has  reflected  on  the 
subject  can  understand  that  there  can  be  no  home  life 
worthy  of  the  name  except  where  one  woman  reigns 
as  queen. 

Mohammed  tolerated,  but  did  not  encourage  or 
enjoy,  polygamy.  The  Koran  says,  "If  ye  fear  that 
ye  shall  not  act  with  equity  towards  orphans  of  the 
female  sex,  take  in  marriage  of  such  other  women  as 
please  you,  two,  or  three,  or  four,  and  not  more." 
And  yet  it  appears  that  what  was  intended  as  a  favor 
to  unfortunate  females  proved  the  source  of  their 
undoing ;  though  the  Prophet  unquestionably  had 
respect  for  women,  as  he  owed  his  success  largely  to 
one  of  his  wives. 

The  education  of  the  Turkish  women  is  limited  to 
housekeeping  of  a  respectable  order,  and  to  the 
culinary  art,  while  for  accomplishments  she  learns  to 
dance,  sing,  and  play  the  dulcimer.  It  would  not  do 
to  omit  that  in  their  fancy  needlework,  rugs,  drapery, 
etc.,  there  is  much  to  be  admired.  Silk  scarfs  with 
love  ballads  from  Hafiz  or  sacred  verses  from  the 
Koran  wrought  in  golden  threads  upon  them,  jewel- 
sprinkled  cushions,  richly  ornamented  robes  and  gar- 
ments, indicate  expert  skill  and  good  taste.  In  fact, 
a  great  many  of  the  furnishings  of  their  homes  are  the 
products  of  household  industries. 


A   MOSLEM    SLAVE    GIRL   OF   THE   HAREM. 


SOCIAL   AND   HOME    LIFE.  189 

In  common  with  all  other  women,  they  have  a  fond- 
ness for  fine  dress,  and  their  costumes  conform  to  the 
latest  Western  styles,  as  fashions  are  introduced  direct 
from  tlie  French  capital.  The  purely  indoor  dress  is 
simple,  yet  rich,  in  silk,  velvet,  and  satin — an  under- 
garment of  light  gauze  material  with  full  and  long 
sleeves ;  then  bright-colored,  baggy  trousers  of  the 
zouave  pattern  more  or  less  concealed  by  the  gold- 
embroidered  robe  or  outer  garment,  which  is  open  in 
front  and  has  slits  at  the  sides  of  the  wide,  flowing- 
sleeves.  Such  a  costume  is  certainly  a  good  one  from 
a  sanitary  point  of  view.  The  zouave  sleeveless  vest 
is  worn  whenever  weather  or  taste  calls  for  it,  and  the 
head-dress  is  usually  a  velvet  cap  decorated  with  tinsel 
and  jewelry.  The  neck  and  arms  are  literally  loaded 
with  silver  and  gold  bracelets  and  necklaces  set  with 
costly  stones.  The  feet  are  encased  in  the  dainty 
Oriental  slippers  with  upturned  pointed  toes. 

The  Turkish  woman  suffers  from  too  rigid  restraint, 
and  lives  a  life  of  almost  absolute  stagnation.  A 
Turkish  husband  maN'  lash  his  wife  with  tonene  and 
hands  before  her  children  and  servants  to  his  heart's 
content ;  he  may  be  as  profane  as  he  pleases,  and  may 
apply  to  her  any  number  of  humiliating  or  obscene 
epithets  ;  and  to  all  sorts  of  ill-treatment  from  him  she 
must  submit  without  a  frown  ;  for  if  her  actions  in  any 
way  displease  him  she  is  in  imminent  danger  of  missing 
paradise.  Her  prime  duty  is  to  court  and  obtain  his 
good  will.  A  wife  whose  tongue  has  made  trouble 
for  her  husband  will  have  that  "  useful  "  appendage 
lengthened  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  at  the  judg- 
ment !     With  such   a  weapon,  what   man   would  dare 


190        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

to  marry  one  of  them !  The  Prophet  himself  declares 
that  he  would  not  officiate  at  the  funeral  of  his  own 
daughter  if  her    husband  was  displeased  with  her. 

The  Armenian  woman,  though  so  close  a  neighbor 
to  the  Turkish,  radically  differs  from  her  in  many  par- 
ticulars. Circumstances  have  been  more  propitious  for 
her  advancement ;  seclusion,  polygamy,  or  divorce  do 
not  darken  her  present  or  threaten  her  future.  In 
youth  she  shares  alike  with  young  men  the  advantages 
of  culture  and  education.  American  customs,  as  well 
as  American  furniture,  pianos,  and  sewing  machines, 
bring  comfort  to  her  home.  She  entertains  callers  of 
either  sex,  but  takes  particular  delight  in  the  company 
of  the  wives  and  daughters  of  European  and  American 
residents.  She  reads,  writes,  and  dresses  in  Western 
fashion,  and  is  thus  quite  responsive  to  the  evolution 
of  the  times.  It  is  not  to  be  denied,  however,  that, 
with  all  her  modern  accomplishments,  she  is  not  per- 
mitted so  much  liberty,  neither  is  she  esteemed  or 
valued  quite  so  highly,  as  the  women  of  America. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  mention  in  this  connection  that 
the  rising  generation  of  the  best  type  of  the  Turkish 
ladies  is  also  indicating  a  slight  tendency  toward 
Western  progressiveness.  The  o\d-ia.shionGd  }'es/imak, 
which  once  almost  completely  hid  her  features,  is  being 
gradually  superseded  by  a  thin  gauze  veil,  which  is 
indeed  so  thin  that,  like  a  transparent  glass,  it  shows 
more  clearly  the  beautiful  countenance  of  the  hanoum 
within.  Thus,  even  in  the  changeless  East,  the  "new 
woman  "  is  evidently  asserting  herself.  The  disregard 
of  even  the  thin  veil  by  some  of  the  Turkish  women 
went  so  far  as  to  call  forth  an  trade  from  the  Sultan 


THE    FAIR    WOMEN    OF   THE    HAREM. 


sultan's    HAREM   ON   THE  BOSPHORUS. 


192  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

commandinor  them  to  cover  their  faces.  The  Turkish 
woman,  too,  is  seeking  the  acquaintance  of  her  Euro- 
pean sisters,  and  is  endeavoring  to  acquire  their 
manners  and  customs  as  far  as  her  religion  will  allow; 
but  the  ofeneral  diffusion  of  knowledgre  and  freedom, 
like  everything  Turkish,  is  very  slow.  The  ignorance, 
superstition,  and  bigotry  of  the  nation  are  largely  the 
result  of  uneducated  mothers.  In  the  absence  of  the 
father  on  affairs  of  business  during  the  day,  the  child 
is  under  the  direct  influence  of  his  mother  at  home,  and 
every  characteristic  of  her  conduct  has  a  molding 
influence  on  him.  If  her  words  be  wise  and  her  con- 
duct refined,  the  child  will  thus  be  molded  ;  and,  on 
the  contrary,  if  she  be  ignorant  and  rude,  her  defects 
'will  be  reproduced  in  her  child.  Thus  women  largely 
determine  the  standard  of  civilization  for  their  country, 
and  it  is  altogether  the  exception  for  an  empty-headed 
mother  to  bring  up  clear-headed,  intellectual  children. 
With  woman's  intellectual,  ethical,  and  spiritual  eleva- 
tion the  nation  rises  ;  while,  with  her  degradation  and 
humiliation,  the  nation  sinks  to  the  lowest  level  of 
civilization.  If  we  traverse  the  ages  covered  by  his- 
tory, we  shall  find  these  statements  fully  verified.  We 
need  not  go  to  past  ages  for  conviction,  but  need  only 
compare  the  old  stagnant  dullness  and  darkness  of 
some  Asian  countries  of  to-day  with  bright  and  pros- 
perous America,  whose  fair  daughters  share  alike  with 
their  brothers  the  highest  education  of  the  land. 
Happily,  the  Armenians  are  realizing  the  seriousness 
of  this  problem  more  and  more,  and  are  accepting  the 
education  of  woman  as  a  vital  part  of  the  Christian 
faith  so  generally  held  by  our  nation. 


SOCIAL   AND   HOME   LIFE. 


193 


Is  the  Turkish  woman  responsible  for  the  semi- 
civiHzed  position  she  occupies  in  the  world  ?  As  has 
been  indicated,  she  is  more  than  anxious  to  take  her 
true  place  among  her  progressive  sisters,  but  the 
religious  institutions  under  which  she  is  unfortunately 
placed  create  all  these  inhuman  customs — seclusion, 
polygamy,  and  blind  submission  to  ill-treatment — which 
she  is  under  moral  bonds  to  obey.  The  religious  insti- 
tutions, therefore,  are  directly  accountable  for  her  sad 
position.  Did  Mohammed  live  in  the  present  era,  I  do 
not  believe  he  would  approve  of  these  customs.  The 
improvement  or  elevation  of  the  condition  of  Turkish 
women,  then,  is  to  be  only  through  a  reformation  of 
the  Mohammedan  religion. 

While  it  is  a  great  thing  to  know  other  people,  it  is 
a  greater  thing  to  know  ourselves.  A  man  does  not 
know  or  see  himself  in  a  true  and  impartial  light.  His 
character,  good  or  bad,  is  like  a  basket  on  his  back. 
He  niay  be  conscious  of  it,  but  cannot  see  it  as  other 
people  do.  What  is  true  of  individuals  is  also  true  of 
nations.  Does  the  American  woman  see  herself  as  she 
is  seen  in  her  exalted  position,  towering  in  freedom 
above  her  sisters  of  all  other  climes  ?  And  yet  she  is 
not  satisfied  and  asks  for  the  enlargement  of  her  sphere. 
The  womanhood  of  this  land  is  certainly  doing  well  in 
its  own  realm  ;  as  to  whether  woman  would  accomplish 
more  outside  of  her  dearest  kingdom,  the  home,  it  is 
not  within  the  bounds  of  my  Oriental  ideas  to  predict, 
much  less  to  decide.  I  am,  however,  a  believer  in  the 
good  doctrine  of  Confucius  that  "  True  virtue  consists 
in  avoiding  extremes."  Suffrage  might  and  might  not 
benefit  womankind  ;  yet  in  either  case  should  woman 


194        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

enter  the  turmoil  of  politics,  it  is  my  humble  opinion 
that  her  sacred  mission  in  the  home,  where  she  reigns 
supreme,  would  be  somewhat  neglected  and  suffer 
accordingly. 

While  acknowledging  the  superior  intellectual 
attainments  of  the  American  woman,  her  grace  of 
manner,  her  social  charms,  I  contend  that  her  Arme- 
nian sister,  if  not  a  peer,  would  at  least  have  become  a 
close  rival,  had  she  been  privileged  to  enjoy  equal 
advantages.  Within  recent  years  a  limited  number  of 
higher  institutions  have  been  opened  to  the  women  of 
Armenia  ;  and  their  fair  occupants  have  conclusively 
proven  that  it  is  not  brains  that  they  are  lacking,  but  a 
larger  environment  and  freedom  from  the  old  stagna- 
tion of  Oriental  tradition. 


COURTSHIP    AND    MARRIAGE. 

The  matches  and  courtships  of  the  Turks  are  beset 
with  more  difificulties  than  in  Western  countries. 
Young  Turks  do  not  call  on  their  lady  friends  and  pro- 
long the  tale — indeed  a  tale  of  long  hours  among  some 
Americans  !  Most  Turkish  girls  cannot  even  write,  but 
many  generations  of  practice  have  developed  a  unique 
system  of  symbols  by  which  they  communicate  with 
young  men  whose  friendship  they  wish  to  encourage. 
A  haitoum,  or  young  la'dy,  sees  in  the  private  grounds 
of  a  neighbor  over  the  wall  a  comely  youth  whom  she 
admires,  and  then  proceeds  to  communicate  with  him. 
She  prepares  an  affectionate  surprise,  not  with  paper 
and  ink,  for  she  cannot  write,  but  she  makes  up  an 
expressive   token    of   regard    with   a   piece    of   string, 


A  TURKISH    YOUNG    LADY, 


196        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF.HAIG. 

delicious  fruit,  fragrant  flowers,  and  pretty  bits  of 
stone,  each  of  which  has  a  meaning.  When  completed 
it  is  tossed  over  the  intervening  wall,  and,  lying"  near 
his  favorite  ramble,  is  soon  found  and  read  likean  open 
book.  The  thoughts  expressed  are  those  in  vogue  the 
world  over  under  like  impulses,  and  ere  long  she  will 
find  an  answer  beneath  her  window  similar  to  her 
message.  This  strange  correspondence  will  continue 
for  a  varying  period.  By  and  by,  if  the  tokens  are 
indicative  of  unaltering  affection,  the  )oung  man  brings 
the  question  of  his  matrimonial  scheme  to  the  con- 
sideration of  his  parents,  inspiring  them  with  the  same 
zeal  and  determination  that  Patrick  Henry  displayed 
in  the  Continental  Congress  when  he  exclaimed,  "Give 
me  liberty  or  give  me  death  ! "  and  the  marriage  of  the 
young  lovers  is  arranged  by  mutual  agreement  of  the 
families.  This  is  but  the  formal  sequel  to  an  affair  of 
the  heart,  romantic  in  its  inception  and  natural  in  its 
results.  With  such  a  system  of  communicating  her 
thoughts,  man)'  a  Mohammedan  girl  does  not  regret 
her  inability  to  write  ;  she  has  no  conception  of  any 
other  use  which  she  could  make  of  the  pen. 

Doubtless  she  has  been  quite  willing  to  submit  to 
those  forms  of  marriage  ceremony  and  wedding  festivity 
which  make  her  almost  a  dummy  for  the  occasion. 
To  be  enveloped  and  thickly  blindfolded  in  a  colored 
sheet,  and  placed  in  a  corner  for  hours,  mute  and 
motionless,  like  the  corpse  at  tlie  Irish  wake,  is  the 
fate  of  the  Turkish  bride,  and  thou"h  the  marriage 
files  are  prolonged  for  several  days  and  are  an  occasion 
of  great  joy,  enlivened  by  music  and  dancing,  she  is 
not  allowed  to  be  exposed  to   the  public  gaze.     It  has 


SOCIAL  AND   HOME   LIFE.  I97 

always  been  a  wonder  to  me  how  such  an  odd  custom 
was  ever  inaugurated  and  allowed  to  dominate  for  so 
many  generations  ;  how  the  happiest  occasion  of  life 
should  be  spent  in  such  a  state  of  humiliation  ! 

With  the  Armenians  the  usages  are  quite  different, 
although  among  the  more  old-fashioned  parents  con- 
tracts for  the  marriage  of  their  children  are  made  while 
they  are  yet  infants,  and  neither  the  boy  nor  the  girl 
has  any  voice  in  the  matter.  In  many  well-ordered 
Armenian  homes,  however,  courtship  and  marriage — 
indeed,  social  life  in  general — follow  the  rdgime  of 
Western  civilization.  In  the  matter  of  choice  for 
future  companionship,  both  the  young  woman  and  the 
young  man  have  their  say  in  a  manner  not  unlike  the 
free  expressions  of  the  independent  American  youth. 
Betrothed  Armenians,  too,  have  their  garden  walks, 
afternoon  and  evening  calls,  and  social  receptions,  but 
to  elopement  or  marriage  without  the  formal  sanction 
of  parents  seldom  do  they  resort,  for  the  influence  of 
tradition  and  social  customs  in  the  "  changeless  East  " 
is  strong  and  does  not  yield  to  this  phase  of  Western 
civilization. 

As  the  time  for  an  Armenian  marriage  approaches, 
the  parents  of  the  bride  and  groom  send  out  a  large 
number  of  invitations  to  their  respective  friends  and 
relatives.  Thus  the  wedding  becomes  a  picturesque 
concourse  of  guests  gathered  from  far  and  near  at  the 
homes  of  the  bride  and  groom,  all  dressed  in  gala 
attire,  with  profuse  gifts  for  the  bride.  The  pres- 
entation of  the  gifts,  known  as  the  bride's  toilet,  is  an 
interesting  ceremony,  always  witnessed  by  the  coterie 
of  girl  friends  whom  she  has  invited.      On  this  occasion 


198        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

the  bride's  hands  sparkle  with  diamonds,  while  her 
finger-tips  and  palms  are  dyed  with  Jieniia,  a  sort  of 
powder  made  of  dried  leaves  of  camphor.  It  is  con- 
sidered proper  for  the  maidens  about  her  to  feel  sor- 
rowful, and  they  indeed  vie  with  one  another  in  their 
profusion  of  tears  and  plaintive  songs  to  the  sound  of 
tambourines,  expressive  of  regret  for  the  departure  of 
their  friend  into  a  new  sphere  of  life.  A  similar  cere- 
mony is  being  enacted  at  the  home  of  the  groom, 
except  that  all  is  mirth  and  hilarity  with  them.  But 
no  matter  how  many  tears  custom  may  cause  the 
young  maidens  to  shed,  the  wedding  is  made  an  occa- 
sion of  the  greatest  joy  and  merriment.  Everything 
puts  on  a  most  brilliant  appearance,  with  much  gaud 
and  glitter,  pomp  and  pride,  everywhere.  What  a  dis- 
play of  rich  robes  !  What  a  vision  of  flashing  jewels  ! 
After  much  music,  dancing,  and  refreshments,  the  com- 
panions of  the  groom  advance  in  proct^ssion  to  the 
home  of  the  bride,  who,  arrayed  in  wedding  gown  and 
veil,  awaits  the  event  of  her  life,  the  arrival  of  the 
bridegroom — near  the  midnight  hour,  if  the  old  custom 
is  followed.  Then  all  the  guests,  accompanied  by  the 
bride  and  groom,  march  in  gay  and  noisy  procession, 
with  beating  drums  and  sounding  pipes  and  brightly 
flaring  torches,  to  the  church,  where  a  simple  yet  im- 
pressive ceremony  is  performed  in  the  presence  of 
many  witnesses.  Upon  entering  the  sacred  shrine,  the 
bride  and  groom  in  rapt  devotion  make  the  sign  of  the 
cross  three  times,  with  a  prayer  ;  then  moving  toward 
the  altar  steps,  they  take  their  positions  there  side  by 
side.  The  service  is  chanted  in  the  classical  Armenian, 
and  portions  bearing  on  marriage   are  read  from  both 


AN    AKMENI.AN    MERCHANT    AND    FAMILY    IN    MAkSOVAN,     Tl  RKEY. 


200  THE   TURK   AND    THE    LAND   OF    UAIG. 

the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  Then  the  priest,  from 
the  altar  steps,  asks  the  bridegroom  and  the  bride 
separately  whether  they  are  acceptable  to  each  other. 
At  this  time  should  either  person  object  to  the  union 
the  objection  is  accepted,  and  the  marriage  stops  then 
and  there.  Such  incidents,  however,  scarcely  ever 
happen.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  formal  acceptance, 
the  couple  stand  with  their  foreheads  touching,  while  a 
cross  is  held  between  them  as  a  symbol  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  A  golden  cross  with  a  silk  cord  is  fastened  by 
the  priest  on  the  forehead  of  each,  and  these  are  not 
removed  until  the  next  morning.  Upon  the  con- 
clusion of  the  marriage  ceremony  the  happy  pair  walk 
hand-in-hand  to  the  tiireshold  of  the  sanctuary,  and 
thence  the  bride,  supported  by  the  bridesmaids,  marches 
homeward  with  the  usual  demonstrations. 

At  home,  while  husband  and  wife  are  seated  side  by 
side,  the  guests  follow  in  a  regular  line,  kiss  the  crosses 
on  their  foreheads,  and  make  each  an  offering  for  the 
benefit  of  the  officiating  clergymen.  In  the  evening 
there  is  generally  a  banquet  tendered  by  the  newly 
married  pair  to  their  friends  ;  and  all  the  next  day, 
sometimes  the  entire  week,  the  young  couple  are  busy 
with  merry  feasting  and  the  congratulations  of  callers. 
To  make  the  greatest  occasion  in  life  the  greatest  occa- 
sion of  jubilee  is  certainly  a  beautiful  custom  worthy 
of  imitation. 

The  conduct  expected  of  a  newly  married  bride  is 
very  singular  indeed,  and  bears  a  remarkable  resem- 
blance to  the  old-fashioned  patriarchal  manners  of  the 
Armenians.  She  utters  never  a  word  except  when 
alone  with   her  husband,  until    after   the   birth   of  her 


SOCIAL   AND    HOME    LIFE.  20I 

firstborn,  and  then  she  talks  on,  as  a  young  mother  can 
to  her  own.  After  a  while  she  will  talk  to  her  mother- 
in-law  ;  still  later,  her  own  mother  may  again  hear  her 
voice,  and  ere  long  she  will  speak  in  whispers  to  the 
young  girls  of  the  household.  She  will  not  leave  the 
house  during  the  first  year  of  her  married  life  except  to 
go  to  devotions.  Practically  her  discipline  as  a  bride 
terminates  in  six  years,  but  she  will  never  in  her  life- 
time open  her  lips  to  a  man  unless  he  is  related  to  her. 
Such  exacting  devotion  is  unknown  elsewhere.  Young 
girls  of  the  household  are  allowed  to  conduct  them- 
selves in  striking  contrast  to  the  young  married 
woman."  They  chatter  freely  and  cheerfully,  and  their 
ruddy  faces,  full  of  mirth,  are  the  brightest  part  of  the 
domestic  picture. 

The  marriage  ties  so  sacredly  formed  are  never 
broken,  for  an  Armenian  once  married  is  married  for- 
ever, unless  death  should  break  the  tie.  Should  a 
poor  match  be  made,  it  is  certainly  unfortunate;  but 
they  have  to  put  up  with  each  other  without  resorting 
to  divorce  ;  for  divorce,  while  so  common  with  the 
Turk,  who  dismisses  his  wife  with  a  brutal  "  Get  out  !  " 
without  even  troubling  the  court-house  officials,  is,  in- 
deed, an  unknown  luxury  to  the  Armenian.  Should  he 
have  an  uncongenial  companion,  he  has  to  endure  it 
with  the  same  kind  of  patience  as  he  would  endure  a 
sore  head,  which,  though  he  may  try  to  cure,  he  will 
hardly  cut  off,  for  it  is  a  part  of  his  body. 


AN   ARMENIAN   FAMILY. 


SOCIAL  AND    HOME   LIFE.  203 

CARE    OF    THE    SICK — DISPOSAL    OF    THE    DEAD. 

Let  US  turn  our  steps  for  a  while  from  these  brilHant 
nuptial  gayeties  to  solemn  scenes  of  sickness  and  of 
death. 

In  cities  medical  science  and  treatment  of  the  sick  are 
very  much  on  the  same  plan  and  in  much  the  same  con- 
dition as  among  Americans,  and  within  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  expert  foreign  and  native  doctors  have 
multiplied.  In  small  villages  and  hamlets  inhabited  by 
Turks,  however,  the  care  of  the  sick  is  very  singular 
indeed,  for  professional  nursing  is  unknown  and  quacks 
are  numerous.  The  invalid  wants  to  be  cured  at  once 
— in  a  few  hours.  This  universal  desire  to  get  rid  of 
disease  in  a  hurry  makes  him  willing  to  try  anything 
and  everything  that  promise  immediate  victory  over 
his  malady.  The  larger  and  more  repulsive  the  dose, 
the  better  he  thinks  his  chance  of  recovery,  and  he 
cannot  understand  what  good  a  few^  drops  or  a  sugar- 
coated  pill  can  do.  They  do  not  apply  for  a  doctor 
until  the  sick  is  about  to  give  up  the  ghost ;  in  fact,  the 
practice  of  medicine  is  not  generally  recognized  as  a 
distinct  profession  among  ignorant  villagers,  but  the 
neighbor  who  has  traveled  and  seen  much  of  the  world 
is  supposed  to  know  best  what  should  be  done  in  case 
of  sickness.  All  educated  foreigners,  therefore,  are 
considered  to  be  doctors,  and  are  constantly  impor- 
tuned day  and  night  to  treat  the  sick.  On  account  of 
this  ignorance  and  credulity,  quacks  have  their  hands 
full,  and  play  without  mercy  on  the  confidence  of  their 
patients.  For  instance,  they  give  the  dust  of  the 
earth,  plain  white  paper  soaked  in  water  and  admins- 


204        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

tered  in  teaspoon ful  doses,  or  colored  water  to  be  ap- 
plied in  various  forms — all  of  which  pleads  with  mute 
eloquence  for  the  medical  missionary  to  save  the  bodies 
as  well  as  the  souls  of  those  who  have  yet  to  learn  that 
God's  natural  laws  are  as  imperative  as  the  moral  code. 
Physicians  have  found  that  the  naturally  vigorous  con- 
stitutions of  the  people  respond  readily  to  scientific 
treatment  when  the  quacks  can  be  kept  away. 

When  a  man  is  ill,  in  order  to  divert  the  mind  of 
the  sufferer,  all  his  relatives  and  friends  gather  around 
his  bed,  where  they  keep  up  a  loud  conversation, 
smoking  their  long  pipes  and  laughing  loudly,  while 
in  a  corner  of  the  room  the  young  boys  play,  shout, 
and  fight.  By  such  soothing  processes  the  patient  is 
sometimes  lulled  to  slumber,  often  the  slumber  of 
death  !  No  wonder  the  graveyards  are  numerous  and 
thickly  populated  ! 

Diseases  vary  according  to  locality  and  the  occupa- 
tions of  the  people.  Smallpox  makes  sad  ravages  at 
times,  causing  great  loss  of  life,  though  Pasteur's 
system  of  inoculation  by  virus  has  long  been  under- 
stood and  practiced  here.  Indeed,  mothers  have  long 
been  known  to  protect  their  infants  from  the  virus  of 
serpents  and  scorpions  by  giving  them  the  diluted 
poison  in  infancy,  and  such  children  can  be  seen 
handling  scorpions  with  impunity.  Thus  it  would 
seem  that  Asia  Minor  is  the  cradle  of  modern  applied 
science,  as  well  as  of  the  human  race. 

When  death  knocks  at  any  door,  that  house  is  the 
scene  of  the  wildest  demonstiations  of  grief.  PVe- 
quently  the  stillness  of  the  night  is  so  disturbed  by  the 
zealous   mourners    that  sleep   in    the  neighborhood  is 


SOCIAL   AND    HOME    LIFE.  205 

almost  impossible.  They  cry  aloud,  bewailing  their 
loss,  and  sometimes  they  tear  their  hair  and  embrace 
the  lifeless  body,  proclaiming  the  real  or  imaginary 
virtues  of  the  deceased.  Burial  follows  quickly  upon 
death.  The  body  is  taken  out  into  the  yard,  washed 
wrapped  tidily,  and  placed  in  an  open  bier,  which  is 
carried  upon  the  shoulders  of  friends  and  neighbors, 
first  to  a  church  where  the  service  for  the  dead  is 
chanted,  then  to  the  cemetery  where  it  is  placed  in  a 
shallow  grave.  The  cemetery  is  at  a  distance  from 
human  habitations,  and  is  often  one  huge  common 
grave.  Mohammedans,  however,  do  not  bury  twice 
in  the  same  place,  which  makes  their  cemeteries  much 
larger  than  those  of  Christians.  Among  them,  imme- 
diately after  death,  the  body  is  removed  to  the  porch 
of  the  mosque.  After  the  usual  noonday  worship,  the 
congregation  come  out  to  the  yard  of  the  mosque  and 
stand  devoutly  in  regular  order.  As  the  sonorous 
voice  of  the  holy  man  comes  from  the  sacred  shrine, 
the  entire  congregation  take  off  their  shoes,  throw 
them  on  the  ground,  and  stand  erect,  putting  their 
hands  to  their  ears.  At  the  second  call  all  the  hats 
are  removed,  and  all  the  heads  are  bowed  down  to  the 
ground  in  devotion  ;  at  the  third  call,  the  entire  con- 
gregation, having  put  on  their  shoes  and  fezes,  follow 
the  corpse  to  the  cemetery,  where  it  is  taken  from  the 
coffin  and  buried  without  further  ceremony.  Then  the 
coffin  is  taken  back  to  the  mosque  to  await  another 
funeral. 

Individual  graves  of  the  Armenians  often  have 
interesting  monuments.  Designs  indicating  the  occu- 
pation or  profession  of  him  who  reposes  beneath  are 


206  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

carved  upon  them.  A  blacksmith's  grave,  for  instance, 
is  marked  by  a  hammer  and  anvil.  Those  who 
suffered  martyrdom  have  the  fact  indicated  by  a  cross. 
In  the  Armenian  provinces  of  Asia  Minor  the  oldest 
gravestones  are  in  the  form  of  crouching  rams,  the 
inscriptions  being  cut  on  the  sides. 

Mohammedan  memorials  are  free  from  the  desecra- 
tions too  commonly  seen  in  Christian  cemeteries. 
The  headstone  is  a  large  block  with  inscriptions,  and 
at  the  foot  of  the  grave  is  another  of  almost  equal  size, 
the  space  between  being  built  up  with  marble  slabs  to 
resemble  a  chest  or  casket. 

In  large  cities  forests  of  cypress  trees  cast  deep 
shadows  of  mourning  over  the  resting  place  of  the 
dead.  In  his  description  of  these  cemeteries,  how 
graphic  are  the  words  of  Byron  : 

"The  place  of  a  thousand  tombs 

That  shine  beneath,  while  dark  above 
The  sad  but  living  cypress  glooms 

And  withers  not,  though  branch  and  leaf 
Are  stamp'd  with  an  eternal  grief, 
Like  early  unrequited  love." 

THE    RURAL    DISTRICTS. 

If  you  have  leisure  and  a  fondness  for  rural  beauty, 
let  us  mount  on  horseback,  or  on  little  donkeys,  and 
seek  a  village  where  we  may  cross  the  threshold  of  an 
old-fashioned  Turkish  dwelling.  On  our  way  to  the 
country,  as  we  ride  along,  enjoying  the  glories  of  the 
summer,  giving  and  returning  the  salutations  of  peace 
and  welcome,  we  shall  find  much  that  is  interesting 
both  in  objects  and  scenery.     We  hear  the  rippling  of 


208        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

the  wayside  brook,  and  the  notes  of  the  birds  as  we 
pass  under  the  arching  trees.  Our  eyes  are  greeted 
by  lovely  hillsides  and  dales  covered  with  beds  of 
fragrant  wild  flowers  or  by  waving  fields  of  grain, 
stretching  away  to  the  horizon.  Yonder  is  the  moun- 
tain side,  dotted  with  log  houses  and  with  the  slowly 
moving  caravans  of  Syrian  camels,  journeying  for 
many  weary  saats.*  In  the  absence  of  railroads,  these 
animals  perform  the  duties  of  locomotives,  although  at 
a  somewhat  slower  rate.  The  peculiar  feature  about 
this  mighty  host  of  camels  is  that  they  are  led  by  a 
little  sleepy  donkey.  This  gives  origin  to  one  of  our 
proverbs.  When  a  mighty  intellect  follows  the 
counsel  of  an  insignificant  one,  it  is  said  "  The  camel 
is  following  the  donkey."  Here  and  there  we  see 
large  droves  of  horses,  buffaloes,  sheep, f  and  oxen 
pasturing  on  the  great  sweeps  of  grass.  Yonder  from 
the  high,  wooded  hills  a  host  of  donkeys  with  loads  of 
wood  on  their  backs  and  loud,  jingling  bells  suspended 
from  their  necks,  braying,  kicking,  and  jun^ping,  are  on 
the  road  to  their  respective  homes ;  for  eacli  donkey 
knows  where  he  belongs  and  needs  no  direction  in 
finding  the  place.  These  little  creatures  are  collected 
from  various  homes  every  morning  by  a  donkey-man, 
and  returned  in  the  evening  with  a  burden  of  wood  for 
the  use  of  the  household.     As  we  approach  the  cottage 

*  Natives  reckon  distances  hy  hours  {saals)  and  never  by  miles.  Camels  move 
at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  a  day  with  burden  of  nine  or  ten  hundred 
pounds. 

f  The  sheep  here,  unlike  those  in  America,  have  broad,  heavy  tails  of  pure  fat 
from  three  to  six  inches  in  diameter  and  from  thirteen  to  fifteen  inches  in  length. 
In  fact,  the  tail  is  one-half  as  heavy  as  the  body  of  the  sheep.  The  fat  of  the  tail 
is  fried  and  used  as  lard. 


SOCIAL  AND   HOME   LIFE.  2O9 

all  the  dogs  in  the  village  are  thoroughly  roused  by 
our  knocking.  Our  host  is  the  type  of  a  Turkish 
patriarch,  with  a  brown,  weather-beaten  countenance 
and  a  venerable  beard  sweeping  down  his  chest.  By 
common  consent  he  bears  the  title  kekyah,  or  "head- 
man," of  the  village.  Like  his  fellow  villagers,  he  is 
simple-minded,  good-hearted,  honest,  but  unprogress- 
ive,  unambitious,  and  ignorant.  He  cannot  read  or 
write,  nor  does  he  know  any  other  literature  and 
history  than  that  of  his  own  immediate  ancestors,  and 
he  passionately  cherishes  these  legends  and  traditions 
of  his  fathers.  He  never  strives  to  keep  up  appear- 
ances. He  wears  a  pair  of  balloon-like  trousers  of 
very  voluminous  folds,  and  his  abba,  or  coat,  is  a  long 
cloak  of  sheepskin  with  the  woolly  side  turned  in, 
which  he  has  worn  constantly  summer  and  winter  for 
many  years.  His  head  is  wrapped  in  a  huge  turban 
as  large  as  a  pumpkin.  Like  neighboring  peasants, 
his  life  is  simple  and  his  wants  are  few.  Many  genera- 
tions have  wrought  little  or  no  change  in  his  modes 
and  manners.  He  scorns  all  modern  improvements, 
and  regards  them  with  much  suspicion  and  prejudice. 
His  bigotry  and  ignorance  render  him  an  easy  victim 
to  superstition  ;  and,  consequently,  any  Western  farming 
machinery,  and  any  advanced  movement  that  is  be- 
yond his  comprehension,  he  pronounces-"  devilish,"  and 
has  nothing  to  do  with  it. 

Rev.  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  ex-President  of  Robert 
Colleo-e.  savs  the  Turks  ascribe  mechanical  invention 
to  Satan,  the  "  stoned  devil,"  against  whom  they  pray 
five  times  a  day.  "  I  have  myself,"  he  says,  "  for  some 
supposed  mechanical  ability,  been  seriously  introduced 


210  THE   TURK  AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

by  one  Ottoman  to  another  as  '  the  most  Satanic  man 
in  the  empire.'  "  Our  Turk  admits  no  innovation,  as  he 
never  pretends  or  attempts  any  scheme  which  was  not 
thought  of  and  followed  by  his  fathers  ;  and  thus  life 
flows  on  in  the  old  channels.  He  is  the  head  of  a 
great  family,  grouped  together  on  the  mountain  side, 
with  its  green,  sloping  pastures,  and  lives  with  his  flocks 
and  numerous  children.  An  ample  roof  shelters  the 
nearly  threescore  members  of  the  family  for  genera- 
tions under  a  single  roof,  without  knowledge  or  care 
for  the  world  outside  their  little  village  !  The  glories 
of  great  cities,  the  pomp  of  pashas  and  royal  dignita- 
ries, are  to  them  like  a  distant  tradition.  Yet  they  are 
comfortable,  happy,  and  contented  in  their  little  round 
of  duties  and  pleasures,  and  are  blessed  with  an  easy- 
going temperament.  The  young  man  rises  with  the 
sun  in  the  morning,  and  with  his  flocks  wanders  over 
green  mountains  and  hills,  by  shady  groves  and  still 
waters,  singing  cheerfully  his  native  ballads  through  the 
woods,  or  playing  his  sweet-toned  flute.  He  returns 
home  late,  as  the  waning  moon  feebly  lights  up  the 
exquisite  landscape.  He  joins  the  family  dance  by  the 
blaze  of  the  evening  fire,  while  the  old  women  w^eave 
cotton  and  yarn,  or  are  occupied  in  making  various 
articles  for  domestic  use. 

The  house  is  "built  in  a  picturesque  locality  by  the 
old  keliyah,  who  is  the  architect  and  carpenter  as  well 
as  the  crovernment  acrent  of  the  village.  Locts  are 
brought  down  from  the  near  forest.  Bricks  are  made 
of  mud  and  straw,  and  are  molded  in  various  sizes 
and  shapes,  then  put  into  open  fields  to  dry.  In  a  few 
days    they   become    sufficiently    solid    for   building    a 


SOCIAL  AND   HOME- LIFE.  211 

substantial  house.  The  earth  which  is  dug  out  is 
banked  against  the  sides  of  the  house,  and  the  rear  of 
the  structure  is  entirely  imbedded  in  the  hillside. 
Light  enters  through  the  oiled  paper  windows  in  the 
flat  roof,  or,  when  windows  are  altogether  discarded, 
the  occupants  are  content  with  what  light  penetrates 
down  from  the  low  chimney,  which  is  not  higher  than 
the  roof. 

The  abodes  of  the  Turkish  farmers  are  more  like 
beehives  than  human  dwellings.  They  are  really  huts, 
mainly  one-story,  barn  and  house  being  built  under  one 
roof ;  and  the  occupants  utilize  the  warmth  of  cows 
and  horses  in  the  winter  to  keep  themselves  warm.  A 
central  oven  fills  the  house  with  smoke,  which  finally 
finds  its  way  out  through  one  of  the  openings  in  the 
roof.  Such  an  abode  old  Diogenes  himself  would 
have  coveted.  In  the  summer  the  stork  builds  her 
nest  on  the  broad-topped  chimney  and  raises  her  brood 
quite  undisturbed.  At  night  the  room  is  illuminated 
by  a  feeble,  flickering  olive-oil  wick,  A  brazier  of  char- 
coal is  placed  in  the  center  of  the  room  and,  like  the 
flame  of  the  vestal  virgins,  is  seldom  allowed  to  go  out. 
It  serves  a  double  purpose,  as  a  heater  and  as  a  cook 
stove.  There  are  no  tables,  no  chairs,  no  books,  no 
ornamental  decorations,  but  here  and  there  are  spread 
divans  and  jnhtdej'S,  or  cushions,  with  drapery  of  Kurd- 
ish stuffs,  upon  which  the  occupants  stretcli  themselves 
in  cross-le^oed  carelessness. 

One,  or  perhaps  two,  large  rooms  suffice  for  sleeping, 
cooking,  eating,  and  lounging.  With  such  rude  belong- 
ings, the  kehyah  never  seems  to  think  anything  is  lack- 
ing.    On  the  wall,  if  we  charitably  term  it  so,  or  rather 


215  THE  TURK  AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAlG. 

on  the  partial  partition,  that  separates  the  living  apart- 
ments from  the  vast  stable,  are  saddles,  bridles,  guns, 
and  the  entire  paraphernalia  of  the  field  and  chase. 
The  equine  favorites  are  nearest  the  family  ;  for,  as 
with  all  Orientals  and  some  Occidentals,  the  horse 
ranks  highest  in  esteem  as  a  domestic  animal.  Farther 
on  are  donkeys,  buffaloes,  cows,  and  sheep,  with  chickens 
scattered  between  them. 

As  we  step  into  tlie  house  w^e  are  received  with  a 
profusion  of  salaams.  We  at  once  find  ourselves  in  the 
midst  of  a  large  Turkish  family, — grandfathers,  fathers, 
uncles,  brothers,  cousins,  and  numerous  children, — all 
assembled  in  a  large  room,  dressed  in  gay  and  odd 
colors,  sitting  cross-legged  around  the  bright,  blazing 
fire  and  warming  their  lazy  bones.  But  we  fail  to  see 
in  the  great  gathering  any  women,  except  the  old  grand- 
mother, the  senior  wife  of  the  keliyaJi,  who  is  curiously 
dressed,  or  rather  enveloped,  in  a  woolen  garment  from 
head  to  foot,  and  sits  in  a  dark  corner.  The  voung" 
Turks  here  must  surely  have  some  wives  ;  in  such  a 
large  family,  doubtless  there  must  be  some  young  girls, 
too  ;  but  where  are  they  ?  All  out  of  sight  !  As  their 
religion  does  not  allow  women  to  appear  in  the  presence 
of  men,  no  matter  liow  intimately  acquainted,  they  are 
all  driven  into  seclusion — a  very  bad  custom,  indeed  ! 
The  more  religious  a  Moslem  the  more  rigidly  the 
privacy  of  women  is  enforced,  and,  as  a  rule,  the  country 
people  in  this  neighborhood  are  the  most  zealous  of 
religious  fanatics.  I  sometimes  think  if  one  of  these 
over-pious  Moliammedan  Turks  should  chance  to  drop 
into  an  American  city,  and  should  see  the  young  sons 
and  daughters   of  America  walking  arm   in  arm  in   the 


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"    c 

a  > 


214        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

full  swing  of  social   liberty,  he  would   be   shocked  to 
death. 

At  the  side  opposite  the  darkest  chimney  corner, 
where  the  grandmother  is,  sits  the  old  kehyah,  stretch- 
ing his  feet  out  and  smoking,  with  Mussulman  gravity, 
his  pipe,  which  is  so  extremely  long  that  it  extends 
from  the  corner  to  the  center  of  the  room.  In  the 
course  of  our  conv^ersation  the  old  man  remarks  concern- 
ing his  residence  that  his  great-great-great-great — that 
''great"  however,  goes  about  half  a  mile — grandfather 
was  born  and  died  on  the  same  spot  where  he  now 
lives  ;  and  that  he  is  about  seventy-five  years  of  age, 
but  never  has  been  a  dozen  saats  journey  from  his 
home.  This  is  the  case  with  many  a  Turkish  peasant  ; 
many,  indeed,  never  set  foot  outside  their  farms.  No 
progress  is  ever  made  in  this  pastoral  life.  Through 
his  own  inclination,  and  the  policy  of  his  rulers,  the 
Turk  has  remained  isolated  through  the  ages  from  the 
blessings  of  civilization  ;  and  neither  European  influence 
nor  missionaries  have  managed  to  make  any  ingress  to 
speak  of. 

As  we  chat  with  our  host  our  talk  is  interrupted  by 
the  lusty  shouting  and  fighting  of  the  young  boys. 
Then  he  is  obliged  to  go  out  and  give  them  a  scolding. 
Before  his  return  he  is  called  to  another  part  of  the 
house  to  quell  a  still  louder  tumult,  for  ten  or  fifteen 
dogs  are  having  a  lively  concert  of  howling  and  bark- 
ing. On  his  return  let  us  ask  him  why  he  doesn't  kill 
those  useless  brutes  and  get  rid  of  them  once  for  all. 
He  will  answer,  "  It  is  a  great  sin  against  Allah,  and 
a  violation  of  our  laws."  So  numerous  are  dogs, 
especially  in  the  country,  that  when  a  Turk  was  once 


SOCIAL  AND   HOME   LIFE.  21$ 

asked  the  population  of  the  village,  he  replied,  "  About 
one  hundred  and  sixty  dogs  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty   people." 

When  dinner-time  comes,  all  the  males  of  the  house 
return  from  the  field,  wash  their  hands  and  faces,  and 
sit  cross-leered  on  the  floor  in  a  circle  around  the 
sufra,  or  low  table.  There  are  spoons,  but  no  knives 
or  forks.  In  the  center  is  placed  an  immense  bowl  of 
hot  soup.  When  ready  for  the  fray,  the  kehyah  gives 
them  the  signal  to  commence,  and  immediately  all  the 
spoons  enter  the  bowl.  The  soup  is  followed  with  a 
dish  of  meat.  Each  rolls  up  his  long,  flowing  sleeves, 
and  with  bare  fingers  and  unbounded  appetite  sepa- 
rates the  flesh  from  the  bones.  Then  comes  the  unfail- 
ing accompaniment,  jj'^^//?/r/,  or  coagulated  buttermilk, 
a  highly  prized  species  of  refreshment.  After  a  suc- 
cession of  dishes,  the  meal  is  ended  with  washing 
hands. 

The  kehyaJi  is  the  greatest  scientific  authority  in 
the  neighborhood,  for  the  fact  that  he  is  the  oldest 
dignitary  of  the  village  naturally  makes  him  the 
authority  on  all  questions  of  importance.  One  night 
the  conversation  of  the  family  was  interrupted  by  a 
bright  flash  of  lightning,  accompanied  by  heavy 
thunder.  One  of  the  children  of  the  household  asked 
the  "grandfather"  the  cause  of  the  bright  light  and 
the  great  noise  ;  then  the  wise  old  patriarch  grasped 
his  sweeping  beard  and,  in  a  dignified  tone,  gave  this 
explanation  : 

"  Up  in  the  clouds,"  said  he,  "our  prophet  Moham- 
med and  Christ  went  into  business  together,  the 
profits  to  be  divided  equally.      One   night  when  Christ 


2l6        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

was  deep  asleep  Mohammed  stole  all  the  profits  and 
left  the  place.  In  the  morning  Christ  discovered  the 
treachery  of  Mohammed  and  pursued  him  in  his  golden 
chariot,  and  so  the  noise  of  the  pursuer  and  the  rum- 
ble of  the  chariots  are  what  make  the  thunder.  The 
lightning  is  the  bullets  of  fire  which  Christ  shot  at 
his  treacherous  partner.  At  length  poor  Mohammed, 
finding  escape  in  mid  air  impossible,  suddenly  plunged 
into  a  deep  body  of  great  water,  where  he  was  quickly 
followed  by  Christ,  and  the  terrible  force  of  their  con- 
flict caused  the  waters  to  splash  and  pour  down  upon 
the  earth,  thus  causing  the  rain." 

These  stories  are  handed  down  from  o-eneration  to 
generation,  and  each  "  remarkable  "  son  inherits  the 
traditional  knowledge  of  iiis  great-great-grandfather. 
The  odd  part  of  it  all  is  that  he  is  absolutely  sure  of 
the  accuracy  of  his  knowledge,  and  has  no  ability  to 
discriminate  between  reality  and  fiction,  fact  and  fancy. 
The  idea  of  the  word  science  does  not  seem  to  have 
entered  his  head  ;  to  talk  to  him  of  science  is  like 
talking  to  a  blind  man  of  colors.  The  primary  step 
to  any  sort  of  attainment  is  the  consciousness  of 
deficiency  and  ignorance.  He  who  does  not  know  that 
he  does  not  know  will  never  know  any  more  than  the 
nothing  he  does  know.  How  sad  to  see,  in  such  an 
age  of  enlightenment,  midnight  darkness  settled  down 
upon  so  many  people  ! 

Now  let  us  watch  how  the  kehyah  works  in  the  field. 
He  has  no  set  time  to  commence  his  harvest ;  he  takes 
his  time,  as  there  is  not  much  fear  of  rain  during  the 
harvest  season.  As  soon  as  the  stalks  of  the  crops  are 
yellow,  or  sufficiently  matured,   they  are  cut  by  hand 


SOCIAL   AND   HOME    LIFE.  2\'J 

with  scythes  and  are  stacked  up  in  piles  in  the  open 
field.  In  due  season,  the  piles  are  all  removed  from 
the  various  quarters  to  the  village  threshing-floor  in 
large  arabahs,  or  carts,  drawn  by  buffaloes  and  heifers. 
The  threshing-floor  is  a  hard  and  smooth  circular  piece 
of  ground,  from  fifty  to  eighty  feet  in  diameter,  upon 
which  the  stalks  are  strewn.  Then  the  threshinor 
machine,  a  sort  of  sled,  with  a  woman  or  boy  standing 
on  it,  is  drawn  around  on  the  hard  earthen  floor  by 
oxen.  This  threshing  implement  is  made  of  a  hard 
piece  of  wood,  and  set  on  the  under  side  with  sharp, 
flinty  stones  like  Indian  arrow-heads.  It  grinds  the 
straw  into  fine  chafl^,  and  sifts  out  the  grrain.  At  the 
evening  breeze,  the  threshed  grain  is  thrown  into 
the  air  with  a  light  shovel,  and  thus  the  broken  straw  is 
blown  on  one  side,  leaving  the  wheat  on  the  ground 
for  the  granaries.  The  chaff  is  also  gathered  and 
stored  away  for  the  purpose  of  feeding  the  cattle  dur- 
ing the  winter. 

The  farmer's  son  does  not  migrate  to  towns  in  search 
of  better  employment,  but  stays  where  he  is  born,  by 
his  father's  cattle,  possessed  only  of  what  the  cravings  of 
nature  require,  and  is  immovable  in  his  peasant  in- 
stincts as  well  as  in  beliefs,  ideas,  and  usages.  For  his 
dull  and  unenterprising  character  and  his  perpetual 
poverty,  the  Turkish  government  is  to  a  large  extent 
responsible.  The  system  of  levying  a  tithe  of  all  prod- 
uce, and  the  additional  custom  dues  for  the  exporta- 
tion of  products  from  one  province  to  another,  leave 
no  inducement  to  the  outraged  farmer  to  grow  more 
than  is  required  to  keep  soul  and  body  together,  and 
his  family  is  thus  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  stolid 


2l8 


THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 


and  unprogressive  peasantry.  Governmental  exactions, 
wrung  by  dishonest  officials  from  the  hard-toiling  farm- 
ers, are  another  evidence  of  Turkish  degeneration  and 
decay.  Indeed,  of  all  nations,  the  Turkish  government 
is   the   last   to   realize  the  relation  of  town  and  farm  ; 


A   TURKISH    PLOW    AND   PLOWMAN. 


that  the  physical  health,  vigor,  and,  indeed  the  progress- 
iveness  of  a  people,  in  no  little  measure  depend  on 
the  nutritive  quality  of  its  flour,  meat,  and  vegetables, 
and  that  the  better  the  farmer  the  better  will  be  the 
quality  of  his  produce,  and  the  higher  the  prices 
from  his  customers  in  the  city.  When  we  add  to  this 
trait  of  stupidity  the  crude  and  primitive  system    of 


SOCIAL  AND    HOME   LIFE.  219 

agriculture,  which  we  have  elsewhere  described,  we  can- 
not wonder  that  the  name  of  the  Turk  has  ever  been  a 
synonym  of  decay  and  poverty. 

In  rural  districts,  such  as  the  one  described,  the  old 
patriarchal  administrative  system  is  still  in  vogue, 
where,  within  the  crude  and  primitive  log-house,  by  the 
hearth,  sits  the  venerable  kehyaJi,  whose  every  word  is 
law  to  those  within.  He  is,  as  indicated,  the  agent  for 
his  community  in  all  transactions  with  the  government. 
In  the  consideration  of  important  affairs  of  general  in- 
terest he  meets  with  the  elders  of  neighboring  ham- 
lets ;  and,  acting  as  a  committee,  they  form  the  commune 
— a  most  striking  illustration  of  the  essential  democ- 
racy of  Oriental  society  with  the  patriarchal  system 
intact.  In  the  high  regard  for  family  rights  it  is 
superior  to  the  Greek  democracy.  Under  a  fostering 
dominant  power,  no  reason  can  be  given  why  it  should 
not  continue  to  the  end  of  time  as  it  has  continued  from 
the  beginning.  In  times  of  adversity  it  is  a  bulwark 
against  anarchy  and  confusion.  This  system  is  a  per- 
petual monument  to  the  sanctity  of  God's  first  human 
institution — the  family.  Indeed,  all  law  originates  in 
the  family  relation.  AIL  attempts  to  supplant  it  by  mili- 
tary despotism,  communism,  or  celibate  asceticism  have 
been  failures.  The  patriarchal  system  was  the  applica- 
tion of  the  family  idea  to  the  tribal  relation.  Recog- 
nition of  the  essential  independence  of  tribes,  subject 
to  treaty  obligations  and  payment  of  taxes,  is  the  key 
to  the  permanence  of  Oriental  institutions.  This  sys- 
tem, free  from  man's  abuses,  has  never  been  improved 
upon,  and  never  will  be. 


THE  TURKS. 


"Asia  Minor  is  the  recruiting  ground  of  the  Turk,  and  is  still 
almost  untouched  by  the  invader." — Stanley  Lane-Poole. 

THE  early  history  of  the  Turks,  if  the  accounts 
which  we  have  of  them  can  indeed  be  called  his- 
tory, is  a  commingling  of  war,  romance,  wandering  con- 
quests, and  the  glory  of  Eastern  courts.  For  the  poet, 
here  are  themes  strang-e  and  untried.  For  the  roman- 
cer,  there  is  no  dearth  of  fact  as  rich  as  fancy.  The 
political  economist  here  finds  his  theories  in  the  frame- 
work of  the  material;  and  the  historian,  for  his  portion, 
contrary  to  the  common  parlance,  comes  last  and  least. 
The  name  and  race  at  their  birth  are  in  the  swaddling 
of  mystery  and  myth.  Near  the  central  part  of  Asia, 
twenty-two  centuries  ago,  we  find  a  people  spasmodi- 
cally nomadic,  composed  of  several  kindred  tribes, 
indiscriminately  known  by  the  general  term  Turks. 
They  are  of  the  same  origin  as  those  nomadic  tribes, 
the  Mongols,  Tartars,  Calmucks,  and  Kirgheez.  The 
Chinese,  dwelling  some  distance  to  the  eastward, 
designated  them  by  the  name  Hiongnu  or,  more  liter- 
all)',  Tu-kin.  Whether  or  no  the  modern  "  Turk  "  is  a 
corruption  of  the  Chinese  appellation,  we  are  unable 
to  say.  We  do  know,  however,  from  evidences  that 
exist  even  at  the  present  day,  that  this  people,  warlike 
and  aggressive,  overran  Asia,  even  venturing  as  far 
north  as  the  Lena  and  as  far  west  as  the  Black  Sea. 

220 


THE   TURKS.  221 

The  Chinese,  who  had  long  before  held  them  in  sub- 
jection, proved  troublesome  neighbors ;  and  for  three 
centuries  constant  war  was  waged  between  the  two 
powers.  The  natural  outcome  of  this  was  that  the 
nation  was  split  into  a  northern  and  a  southern  empire. 
Among  the  rich  mountains  of  the  Altai  were  the  lands 
of  the  northern  tribes.  They  were  not  destined  to 
remain  there  long,  for  the  southern  Turks,  uniting 
with  their  former  enemies,  compelled  them  to"  move 
westward.  This  was  the  first  migration.  These 
southern  people,  in  turn,  were  forced  by  the  Mongols 
and  Tungusians  to  disperse. 

The  second  great  movement  is  known  as  the  sec- 
ond westward  migration,  and  its  offshoots  may  still  be 
found  in  both  Asia  and  Europe. 

As  is  the  case  with  all  movements  truly  great,  the 
people  who  were  destined  to  rule  the  Turkish  Empire 
were  humble  in  their  beginnings.  Looking  back 
over  the  centuries,  a  little  time  after  the  two  migra- 
tions mentioned,  we  find  among  the  golden  moun- 
tains of  Altai  a  people  slaves  to  the  great  Khan 
of  the  Geougen.  This  slavery,  in  the  light  of  other 
events,  must  be  considered  not  a  misfortune  but  a 
blessing,  for  it  proved  a  most  excellent  school  for 
future  conquest.  Slavery  is  only  a  part  of  the  early 
history  of  the  race,  but  ignorance  has  ever  char- 
acterized it.  By  employing  these  Turkish  people 
in  the  manufacturing  of  arms  the  masters  were 
achieving  their  own  downfall,  for  the  former  became 
so  skillful  in  their  use  that  they  soon  severed  their 
bonds,  and  established  an  empire  under  their  spirited 
leader  Bertezema. 


222        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Much  more  than  the  allotted  limits  of  this  book 
would  be  required  to  portray,  in  its  true  glory,  the 
grandeur  of  this  early  empire.  We  will  simply  state 
that  this  was  an  age  of  luxury  and  barbaric  splendor, 
golden  in  fact  and  in  figure.  From  the  accounts  of 
that  early  period,  in  which  legend  and  history  are 
mingled,  we  can  obtain  but  a  faint  conception  of  pre- 
vailing conditions  and  manners.  It  is  obvious,  however, 
that  there  were  no  fixed  habitations,  but,  as  has  been 
indicated,  men  preferred  a  nomadic  life  in  valleys  and 
mountains  ;  hunting  and  warlike  exercises  being  their 
cherished  occupations.  This  wandering  life  was  so 
strongly  developed  into  a  national  characteristic  that 
even  to-day  we  find  the  Turks  chiefly  engaged  in 
pastoral  and  agricultural  pursuits,  while  their  neigh- 
bors, the  Armenians,  are  largely  devoted  to  commerce. 

The  early  home  of  the  Turks, — Turkistan, — or  cen- 
tral Asia,  was  known  among  the  Persians  as  Turan,  the 
"  country  of  darkness"  ;  and  the  inhabitants  as  Tura- 
nians, "  sons,"  or  "  people,  of  darkness."  Their  religion, 
prior  to  Mohammedanism,  was  made  up  of  their  ances- 
tral traditions  and  the  doctrines  of  Zoroaster.  They 
had  their  priests  and  worshiped  fire,  earth,  and  water. 
The  laws  and  regulations  were  communicated  to  the 
masses  by  the  chiefs  of  the  tribes.  In  the  middle  of 
the  seventh  century,  however,  arose  a  force  that  was 
to  have  much  to  do  in  molding  the  destiny  of  more 
than  one  nation.  The  religion  of  Mohammed,  coming 
out  from  the  Arabian  deserts,  spread,  through  the  zeal 
of  his  followers,  with  lightning  rapidity,  north,  south, 
east,  and  west,  until  many  Turkish  tribes,  converted 
from  Zoroastrianism  and  kindred  religions,  accepted  the 


THE   TURKS.  223 

Islam  faith,  which  proved  to  be  a  great  unifying  power. 
In  following  the  fortunes  of  the  people  we  are  con- 
sidering, it  is  well  to  notice  the  influence  of  this  great 
movement  upon  their  national  ideas  and  policy.  One 
of  the  immediate  effects  was  that,  instead  of  becoming 
peaceful,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the  Turks 
coupled  zeal  for  conquest  with  such  religious  fanati- 
cism that  every  war  became  a  crusade. 

The  Seljuks  were  the  first  Turkish  tribe  to  gain  a 
place  in  history.     They  emigrated  to  Khorassan,  under 
the  leadership  of  Seljuk,  from  whom  they  take  their 
name.      Here,  in  a  Persian  province,  they  founded  an 
independent    sovereignty.     The   able    princes    Togrul 
Bey,    Alp    Arslan,    and    Malek    Shah    extended    their 
empire  at  the  expense  of  the  weak  Saracen  Caliphate 
and    the    shrunken    Byzantine    Empire.      Nowhere    in 
Asia  was  such  a  succession  of  able  leaders  ever  known. 
The    heroic  age  of    the  Seljukian   Turks  corresponds 
with  the   Norman  age  in    England.      Persia,  Armenia, 
Syria,  the  greater  part  of  Asia   Minor,  and  the  region 
from  the  Oxus    to    the   Jaxartes    were  conquered    by 
them.     Their   greatest    prosperity    was    under    Malek 
Shah   (1072-92),  who  extended  his    empire   from    the 
Caspian  to  the  Mediterranean,  from  Khorassan  to  the 
Bosphorus.     Aside  from  conquest,  agriculture  was  fos- 
tered ;  public   works,  such   as  canals,  constructed  ;  and 
learning  was  patronized.      Their  astronomers  approxi- 
mated closely  to  the  accuracy  of  the  Gregorian  calendar 
in  reckoning    time.      In  religious    zeal  they   were    the 
most   intolerant   of  all    the  Turks,  and  provoked    the 
Crusades.      Upon  the  death  of  Malek  Shah,  his  realm 
was  divided   by   his  sons  into  three    small    kingdoms. 


224  THE   TURK   AND    THE    LAND    OF   HAIG. 

which  division,  and  the  incompetence  of  the  rulers, 
made  easy  the  advance  of  the  Mongol  hordes  under 
Zenghis  Khan.  This  invasion,  in  turn,  gave  place  to  still 
another  incursion  by  a  tribe  of  Turks  who  were  destined 
to  found   the   Ottoman  dynasty  of  the  present  day. 

The  political  career  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  com- 
mences in  the  thirteenth  century,  when  a  band  of  fifty 
thousand  nomads,  driven  out  from  central  Asia  by  the 
Mongols,  under  the  hereditary  leadership  of  Suleyman 
Shah,  penetrated  via  Persia  into  Armenia. 

One  of  the  chiefs,  Erthogrul  by  name,  while  wan- 
dering upon  the  plains  of  Cappadocia,  aided  Ala-ud- 
Din,  the  Seljuk  Sultan,  in  his  war  against  the  Mongols. 
At  the  end  of  a  successful  contest,  Erthoq^rul  was  re- 
warded  by  the  grateful  Sultan  with  small  tracts  of  land 
in  Byzantine  provinces  as  a  home  for  his  people.  This 
event  gave  prestige  to  the  present  line  of  sovereigns  of 
the  Turkish  empire  in  western  Asia,  and  serves  as  the 
connecting  link  between  the  legendary  and  verified 
history  of  this  notable  Turanian  family. 

Erthogrul  was  yet  alive  when  his  son  Othman,  or 
Osman,  the  founder  of  the  present  dynasty,  came  forth 
in  the  annals  of  Turkish  history,  in  fanciful  vision  sur- 
rounded with  miraculous  revelations  and  marvelous 
circumstances  of  birth.  His  sword  is  still  worn  by 
sovereigns  at  their  coronation  ;  and  from  him  the  native 
surname  Osmanli,  and  the  European  corruption  Otto- 
man, have  been  derived.  Modern  Turks  prefer  and  take 
pride  in  the  term  Osmanli  or  Ottoman,  while  the  name 
"Turk"  they  consider  a  disparagement  and  an  insult  ; 
yet  all  Turks  are  not  Ottomans. 

During  the   famous  administration  of    Othman   his 


Br    PER.    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    HERALD,    NEW    YOHk. 

SOME   OF   THE   SULTANS   OF   TURKEY. 


226  THE   TURK  AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

followers  spread  themselves  on  the  Byzantine  frontier, 
occupying  the  cities  of  Eski-Shehr  and  Kara-Hissar. 
The  Seljuks,  as  fast  as  they  were  subdued,  fused 
with  the  Ottomans.  And  so  did  great  numbers  of 
Christians,  in  the  conquered  states  of  Europe.  As 
the  two  essential  prerogatives  of  an  Eastern  sover- 
eign, Othman  coined  money  and  caused  public  prayers 
to  be  read  in  his  own  name  (1301).  He  intro- 
duced the  absolute  ownership  of  land  among  his 
people.  After  a  firm  establishment  of  his  power,  Oth- 
man waged  war  against  his  old  adversaries,  the  Mon- 
gol hordes,  and  drove  them  out  of  Kara-Hissar.  It  is 
alleged  that  he  was  of  such  a  just  and  generous  char- 
acter that  the  subjects  of  the  East  Roman  emperor 
fled  to  his  protection  ;  and  it  is  commonly  said  that 
this  wise  and  good  man  ruled  after  the  former's  death. 
Othman  died  in  1326,  having  a  short  time  before  fixed 
his  capital  at   Brusa. 

Othman's  younger  son,  Orchan,  began  his  reign 
with  such'  unusual  attainments  of  imperial  wisdom 
and  tact  that  he  even  surpassed  his  father's  bright 
achievements.  As  the  first  act  of  his  reign  he  made 
himself  independent  of  the  weak  Seljuk  Sultan,  and 
then  he  mastered  a  considerable  portion  of  Asia 
Minor;  for  the  mutual  jealousies,  and  the  religious 
and  political  demoralization  of  the  provinces  of  the  em- 
pire, had  made  them  easy  victims  to  conquest.  His 
reign  marked  the  creation  of  a  most  vital  military  organ- 
ization, that  of  the  standing  army.  This  new  system 
came  a  century  before  the  reign  of  Charles  VH.  of 
France,  who  is  considered  by  the  European  historians 
of  the  Middle  Ages  the  originator  of  that  policy. 


THE   TURKS.  227 

His  celebrated  guards  were  known  by  the  name 
yeni-cheri,  or  janizaries,  "new  troops."  Corps  of 
spakis,  or  regular  cavalry,  were  also  organized.  He 
married  the  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Cantacuzenus. 
As  a  potent  advocate  of  science,  art,  and  religion,  he 
promoted  the  cause  of  public  instruction,  endowing  the 
state  with  various  educational  and  religious  institu- 
tions,  and  was  greatly  esteemed  by  men  of  learning, 
who  were  admitted  to  his  councils.  His  capital,  Brusa, 
was  made  a  center  of  light.  Considering  the  age  in 
which  he  lived,  he  should  be  placed  among  the  most 
illustrious  of  Turkish  sovereigns,  as  a  competent  leader, 
prompt  executor,  and  wise  legislator.  During  his  ad- 
ministration the  first  invasion  and  settlement  of  the 
Turks  in  Europe  took  place,  and  the  Crescent  was 
planted  across  the  Hellespont. 

Orchan  died  in  1359,  and  his  second  son,  Murad,  or 
Amurath,  inherited   both   the  crown  and  the  military 
genius  of    his  father.      He    strengthened  his    military 
corps,    the   janizaries,  by   recruiting   it    from    youthful 
Christian    captives,   and    dedicated    them    to    the    ser- 
vice of  the  court  and  army.     The  number  and   power 
of    the     janizaries    were     greatly    augmented     under 
succeeding    sovereigns,  and    the   greatest    of    Turkish 
conquests    were    achieved   by  them.     Thus,   the   bone 
and  sinew   of  the  Ottoman  troops — indeed,  very  often 
the   greatest    men   of    the    Turkish   Empire,  while   at 
the    height  of  its  splendor — were  of  Christian  blood. 
While    such   a    system    of  human  tribute  has    served, 
in  subsequent  years,    as  one    of    the    greatest  sources 
of    Ottoman    strength,    it    was,     on    the    other    hand, 
an  oppression   most  unbearable  for  Christian' parents, 


228  THE   TURK  AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

from  whose  bosoms  their  infants  were  wrested  and 
forced  into  the  service  of  their. oppressors.  All  at- 
tempts of  unfortunate  Christian  parents  to  elude  such 
a  domestic  desolation  were  of  no  avail.  This  sys- 
tem once  in  vogue,  it  was  destined  to  continue  for 
more  than  three  hundred  years  ;  and  lads  thus  sun- 
dered from  the  sacred  bosom  of  parental  affection 
reached  the  colossal  number  of  five  hundred  thousand, 
according  to  Von  Hammer's  estimate. 

Under  Murad's  administration  the  Byzantine  Empire 
was  so  stripped  that  there  was  nothing  left  but  a  few 
adjoining  lands  around  Constantinople,  and  some  out- 
lying possessions  in  Greece  and  Macedonia.  In  1365 
he  captured  Adrianople  and  made  it  his  European  cap- 
ital. His  last  famous  contest,  against  the  combined 
forces  of  Servia,  Hungar)-,  Bosnia,  Wallachia,  and 
Albania,  was  the  famous  battle  of  Kossova,  in  which 
the  Sultan  gained  the  victory  with  the  sacrifice  of  his 
life. 

Bayazid,  the  Yildirim  or  "  Thunderbolt,"  the  son  of 
Murad,  was  the  first  Ottoman  ruler  to  assume  the  title 
of  Sultan.  He  extended  his  conquests  east  and  west. 
He  besieged  Constantinople  for  years,  and  the  emperor 
was  compelled  to  recognize  his  authority  by  paying  an 
annual  tribute.  While  Bayazid  was  engaged  in  the 
East,  the  King  of  Hungary,  taking  advantage  of  his 
absence,  with  a  large  army  of  European  knights,  be- 
sieged Nicopolis.  The  "  Thunderbolt,"  arrived,  how- 
ever, with  his  characteristic  speed,  and  overwhelmed 
the  besiegers,  and,  as  a  result  of  the  contest,  Bul- 
garia became  a  direct  Ottoman  province,  while 
Wallachia  became    tributary.      But   Bayazid's   brilliant 


230  THE   TURK   AND  THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

career  of  European  conquest  was  not  destined  to  last 
long,  for,  while  he  was  under  the  very  walls  of  Con- 
stantinople, he  had  to  hasten  back  to  meet  the 
Mongol  Tartars,  who,  under  the  leadership  of  wild  Tam- 
erlane, the  Napoleon  of  Asia,  after  causing  serious  de- 
struction in  Armenia,  had  penetrated  into  the  Ottoman 
Empire.  Near  Angora  the  two  determined  hosts  stood 
face  to  face  in  a  furious  battle  (1402),  in  which 
Bayazid  met  his  fate  ;  his  country  was  conquered  ;  and 
he  himself  was  carried  into  captivity,  where  he  died. 
The  frightful  defeat  of  Bayazid,  and  the  consequent 
eleven  years'  interregnum,  threatened  the  very  existence 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire  ;  yet,  in  the  middle  of  the  same 
century,  it  became  more  strong  and  compact  than 
before. 

It  is  needless  herein  to  follow  the  administration  of 
successive  sovereigns.  The  sword  of  Othman  de- 
scended, in  the  regular  line  of  succession,  through  many 
generations,  in  the  grasp  of  conquering  Sultans.  The 
brightest  victory  of  the  Turks  was  the  capture  of  Con- 
stantinople, the  capital  of  the  Byzantine  Empire.  This 
imperial  city  of  New  Rome  was  the  jewel  that  all  the 
Sultans  most  coveted,  yet  the  honor  of  its  conquest  was 
reserved  for  Mohammed  II.,  a  man  of  signal  braver)^ 
who  stormed  the  city  and  victoriously  entered  within  its 
walls,  in  the  year  1453.  Early  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
through  the  conquest  of  Syria  and  Egypt,  Sultan  Selim 
the  Inflexible  received  from  the  Sherif  of  Mecca  the 
keys  of  the  Kaaba,  and  Mohammed  XII.,  last  represent- 
ative of  the  Abbasside  Caliphs,  who  reigned  a  purely 
spiritual  prince  at  Cairo,  had  to  surrender  to  Selim  the 
right  of  succession  to  the  Prophet  and  the  distinctive 


THE  TURKS.  23 1 

ensigns  of  the  caliphate — the  standard,  the  sword,  and 
the  mantle  of  Mohammed. 

Selim  was  succeeded  by  Suleyman  the  Magnificent. 
The  reign  of  this  great  Sultan  (from  1520  to  1566), 
which  was  the  longest  of  any  of  the  Ottoman  sovereigns', 
was  the  high-water  mark  of  the  Ottoman  power.  He 
threatened  to  subjugate  all  Christendom.  City  after 
city  had  heard  the  clash  of  the  Mussulman's  arms  and 
had  been  compelled  to  bow  before  his  onward  march. 
Having  dealt  a  crushing  blow  to  a  greater  part  of  Hun- 
gary, to  the  great  alarm  of  entire  Europe,  Suleyman 
had  besieged  Vienna  itself.  However,  soon  after,  the 
planting  of  the  red  flag  before  the  walls  of  the  Austrian 
capital  marked  the  western  limit  of  the  Ottoman 
advance,  for  the  Turk  did  not  take  the  city,  and  farther 
into  Europe  the  Crescent  never  found  its  way. 

At  this  time  the  Turkish  Empire  was  the  mightiest 
power  in  the  world.  Its  possessions  included  all  the 
Asiatic,  European,  and  African  countries  situated  on 
the  Mediterranean,  except  France,  Italy,  Spain,  and 
Morocco  ;  all  the  Black  Sea  coasts  and  nearly  all  of  the 
Red  Sea;  Hungary  and  all  the  kingdoms  south  of  the 
lower  Danube.  Yet  from  this  zenith  of  glory  the  em- 
pire began  to  decline,  for  here  followed  a  line  of  weak 
and  irresolute  Sultans.  The  Ottoman  navy,  which  was 
once  the  terror  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  sustained  a 
withering  blow,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, from  an  allied  fleet  under  Don  John  of  Austria.  In 
the  succession  of  wars  that  followed  with  Austria,  Ven- 
ice, Russia,  and  Poland,  success  and  defeat  were  about 
equally  divided  on  the  field  ;  yet  gradually  the  vitality 
of  the  nation  was  drained  by  continual  carnage.     Aus- 


23^        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

tria  no  longer  lived  in  continual  dread  of  Turkish  Inva- 
sion, but  took  the  offensive.  European  Turkey  fast 
began  to  shrink  in  extent.  Turkish  power  on  the  Dan- 
ube was  destroyed  ;  and  in  1699,  by  the  treaty  of  peace 
of  Carlowitz,  Sultan  Mustapha  II.  gave  over  almost  all 
the  Hungarian  provinces  to  Austria,  Azof  to  Russia, 
Moria  and  Dalmatia  to  Venice,  and  Podolia  and  Uka- 
raine  to  Poland.  The  causes  of  Turkey's  decline  are 
evident  to  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  character 
of  its  later  sovereigns.  The  Turkish  saying  that  "the 
fish  first  stinks  at  the  head  "  has  been  every  whit  true 
of  the  crowned  heads  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  since 
the  death  of  Suleyman.  With  perhaps  two  exceptions, 
all  the  later  Sultans  were  absolutely  lacking  in  moral 
fiber.  Shut  up  in  the  seraglio  with  their  harem  and 
favorites,  they  gave  themselves  up  to  the  indulgence  of 
their  own  follies  and  the  gratification  of  their  vicious 
appetites,  utterly  thoughtless  concerning  the  welfare  of 
their  people  and  the  prosperity  of  their  country.  As  a 
matter  of  course,  they  neglected  the  discipline  of  the 
army  and  gradually  abandoned  the  direct  government 
of  their  empire. 

The  Janizaries,  the  Ottoman  right  arm  in  war,  lost 
all  respect  for  their  unworthy  masters,  and  became  the 
power  behind  the  throne.  They  enthroned  and  de- 
throned the  Sultans  at  their  will.  Military  insubordi- 
nation and  revolts — moreover,  troubles  and  hostilities 
with  the  Christian  states  and  provinces,  by  virtue  of  their 
superior  advancement  in  wealth  and  civilization — as- 
sumed more  and  more  alarming  proportions.  Once  in 
a  long  while  a  wise  ruler  like  Murad  IV.  arose  and 
somewhat  brightened  the  darkened  political  horizon  of 


MOHAMMED    II. 


WITHIN    THE    WALLS    OF    CONSTANTINOPLE. 
(  Frotn  a  painting.) 


234  THE   TURK   AND    THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

the  empire ;  but,  in  the  main,  under  incompetent  sover- 
eigns, the  Turkish  government  lapsed  into  a  condition 
which  went  from  bad  to  worse.  As  we  have  observed, 
all  the  Ottoman  princes  and  Sultans  down  to  Suley- 
man,  with  the  exception  of  Bajazet  II.,  were  great  rulers. 
True,  they  were  most  of  them  cruel  and  despotic,  but 
they  were  resolute  and  brave  ;  they  had  integrity  of 
purpose  and  strength  of  character;  they  marched  at 
the  head  of  their  own  armies  ;  they  made  use  of  oppres- 
sion only  when  it  was  needed  to  carry  out  their  plans  of 
conquest;  they  were  stern,  but  did  not  altogether  dis- 
regard common  justice.  The  later  Sultans  were  quite 
of  another  kind.  They  were  a  degenerate  set  in  wliose 
veins  ran  no  noble  blood.  Inebriate,  imbecile,  incapa- 
ble, slaves  of  sensuality,  and  types  of  cruelty,  they 
turned  backward  from  the  course  which  was  set  for  them 
by  the  aggressive  Sultans  of  former  days,  and  set  to 
enjoying  the  fruit  of  the  earlier  conquests.  Thus  they 
became  consumers  rather  than  producers,  living  on  the 
conquered  countries  without  bestowing  any  practical 
benefit  upon  them. 

THE    PRESENT  SULTAN,  ABDUL-HAMID  II. 

In  the  reign  of  Abdul-Hamid  II.,  the  present  Sultan, 
are  combined,  by  nature  and  environment,  the  elements 
of  decay  which  have  characterized  the  later  rulers  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire. 

"  I  maybe  the  last  of  the  Caliphs,  but  never  a  second 
Khedive,"  declared  this  accomplished  slayer  and  t)'rant 
of  mankind,  when  warned  by  the  Russian  ambassador, 
M.  de  Nelidoff,  that  the  Sultan's  obdurate  course  and 


THE  TURKS.  235 

the  condition  of  the  Turkish  Empire  had  placed  the 
throne  and  the  caliphate  in  imminent  peril.  Abdul- 
Hamid  is,  indeed,  the  least  of  the  Caliphs,  and  doubt- 
less would  have  been  the  last  of  them,  with  the  sec- 
ond- or  third-rate  power  of  a  Khedive,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  mutual  jealousies  of  the  Powers,  who 
had  thought  better  to  maintain  a  "Sick  Man," or  even 
a  dead  man,  on  the  Bosphorus,  rather  than  to  allow  a 
live  man  to  take  his  place  whose  position  might  prove 
too  lively  for  their  keenest  rivalry. 

Born  in  1842,  Abdul-Hamid  II.  came  to  the  Ottoman 
throne  August  31,  1876.  Tragic  were  the  circumstances 
under  which  he  was  made  Sultan.  These  very  trage- 
dies had  much  to  do  with  shaping  his  present  policy. 
His  uncle,  Abdul-Aziz,  was  deposed  and  murdered. 
To  add  to  this  complication,  some  of  the  ablest  minis- 
ters of  the  state  were  assassinated  by  Hassan  Bey  in 
revenge  for  their  treachery  to  the  late  Sultan.  War 
clouds  were  gathering  black  and  heavy.  Servia  and 
Montenegro  had  gone  to  war;  Russians  were  flocking 
to  the  Servian  camp;  Constantinople  was  seething  with 
revolutionary  excitement.  Sultan  Murad,  after  three 
months  of  reign,  was  deposed  and  imprisoned.  Then 
came  Abdul-Hamid,  with  fear  and  trembling,  to  the 
perilous  dignity  of  the  tottering  throne.  It  was 
the  contention  between  the  Old  Turkey  Party  and  the 
Young  Turkey  Party  for  supremacy  in  the  affairs  of 
the  state  that  had  sealed  the  fate  of  his  two  prede- 
cessors. The  progressive  Young  Turkey  Party  had 
stood  for  a  new  order  of  things  and  for  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  while  the  Old  Turkey 
Party,  ever  hostile  to  all  new  ideas,  stood  for  stagnation. 


236        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

This  party  held  in  abhorrence  the  very  name  of  pro- 
gressive institutions,  as  inventions  oi  giaours,  for  whom 
tliey  had  a  whole-souled  hatred.  Abdul-Hamid  had  to 
identify  himself  with  one  of  the  two  parties.  For  a 
while  his  brain  became  a  sort  of  political  insane  asylum 
without  any  keeper.  Then  he  asserted  the  supreme 
power  of  Islam,  according-  to  the  Old  'I\irkey  Party,  the 
results  of  which  during-  his  twenty-one  years  of  reign 
have  borne  their  legitimate  fruits.  The  expectations 
and  hopes  of  the  Young  Turkey  Party  were  shattered, 
and  the  establishment  of  a  constitutional  o-overnment 
and  parliament  done  away  with.  In  one  way  or  an- 
other, beginning  with  able  Midhat  Pasha,  the  chief  ex- 
pounder of  the  constitutional  government,  the  Sultan 
rid  himself  of  all  advisers  whose  ideas  were  opposed  to 
the  notions  of  unrelenting  bigots  and  the  flattering  set 
of  favorites  of  the  Old  Turkey  party  with  whom  Abdul- 
Hamid  had  surrounded  himself. 

To-day,  with  all  his  powers  of  autocratic  and  theo- 
cratic absolutism,  it  is  not  Abdul-Hamid  who  rules,  but 
his  nondescript  palace  party,  made  up  of  chamberlains, 
private  secretaries,  iiiollaJis,  etc.,  in  whose  hands  Abdul- 
Hamid  is  a  mere  puppet  living  in  a  malarious  atmos- 
phere of  corruption.  This  palace  party,  aside  from 
making  confusion  in  the  foreign  relations  of  the  empire, 
has  increased  its  influence  in  internal  abuses,  and 
they  are  responsible  for  the  corruption,  in  the  form  of 
venality  and  perfidy,  which  has  infected  all  ranks  of  offi- 
cial society  throughout  the  empire.  Aspirants  for 
political  offices  and  recognition  eagerly  seek  the  favor 
of  these  gentlemen  of  the  royal  household,  and,  in  most 
cases,  they  literally  sell  favors  to  the  highest  bidder,  ut- 


SULTAN   ABDUL-HAMID   II, 


238  THE    TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

terly  regardless  of  qualification.  It  is  hard  to  reach 
the  Sultan  without  their  connivance.  Under  such  con- 
ditions bribery  flourishes,  while  the  insolent  hangers-on 
at  Yildiz,  whose  main  object  in  existence  is  self- 
advancement,  speedily  grow  rich  at  the  expense  of 
the  empire. 

Abdul-Hamid  himself,  like  his  father,  Abdul-Medjid, 
is  a  great  royal  spendthrift,  squandering  untold  treas- 
ures, careless  of  the  needs  and  interests  of  an  empire  so 
long  as  his  own  pleasures  are  gratified.  The  number 
of  his  domestics  is  said  to  be  six  thousand,  and  is  made 
up  of  imperial  sword-  and  cup-bearers,  mutes,  dwarfs,  or 
court  jesters,  eunuchs,  pashas,  beys,  slaves,  astrologers, 
sultanas,  kadines,  Circassian  and  Georgian  odalisques, 
dancing  women,  etc.  To  cover  the  annual  expenses 
of  such  a  large  household  and  table  twelve  million 
dollars  is  required.  That  the  Turkish  Empire  is  bank- 
rupt is  a  matter  of  course,  and  it  simply  exists  by  the 
mercenary  sufferance  of  powerful  creditors  and  by  the 
perplexed  nature  of   European    politics. 

I  have  a  very  vivid  recollection  of  my  first  view  of 
the  Sultan.  It  was  an  unusually  cool  and  pleasant  day 
in  midsummer  of  1889,  when  I  started  to  witness  the 
imperial  pageant  of  Selemlik — the  Sultan's  going  to 
prayers.  Upon  my  arrival  near  the  Yildiz  Kiosk,  I 
found,  that  almost  every  available  inch  of  space  between 
the  mosque  and  the  palace  was  filled  with  Turkish  sol- 
diers and  with  people  of  every  nation.  Happily,  I 
chanced  to  find  a  base-  and  ragged-looking  Jew,  who  had 
come  early  and  secured  a  high  and  commanding  posi- 
tion above  the  heads  of  the  soldiers.  Nothing  but  the 
jingle  of  coins  would  induce  him  to  give  up  his  place. 


SULTAN    ABDUL-AZIZ. 


240        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

With  a  few  paras,  and  less  parley,  I  succeeded  in  ex- 
changing places  with  him.  He  thought  he  had  the  best 
of  the  bargain,  but  I  would  not  have  given  up  the  place 
for  five  times  the  amount  I  paid  him.  The  new  Mosque 
of  Hamadieh,  in  which  the  present  Sultan  worships,  is 
some  eighty  or  one  hundred  yards  from  the  palace,  the 
Yildiz  Kiosk.  He  rides  to  it,  however,  every  Friday 
noon,  in  an  elegant  barouche,  with  all  the  pomp  of 
elaborate  ritual  and  imposing  ceremony.  From  the 
palace  to  the  mosque  the  streets  are  lined  on  either  side, 
four  ranks  deep,  with  brightly  uniformed  regiments 
of  gorgeous  soldiers,  representing  every  part  of  the 
dominion  in  their  picturesque  and  varied  uniforms  and 
with  their  regimental  banners.  The  roadway  on  which 
the  Sultan  js  to  drive  is  carpeted  a  half-inch  deep  with 
fine,  clean  sand.  Pashas  and  beys,  foreign  ambassadors 
and  diplomats,  ministers  and  high  dignitaries  of  state 
are  all  on  hand  in  full  regalia,  with  o-litterin"-  uniforms 
and  a  profusion  of  gold  lace  and  decorative  orders, 
while  magnificently  mounted  squadrons  of  lancers  and 
cavalry  are  marching  to  position.  About  1.30  p.  m.  all 
eyes  are  eagerly  directed  toward  the  Yildiz  Palace,  as 
it  is  time  for  the  Sultan  to  appear.  Then,  high  above 
the  heads  of  the  mighty  throng,  rings  out  from  the 
slender  minaret  of  Hamadieh  the  impressive  voice  of 
the  green-turbaned  vniczzin.  Presently  the  iron  gates 
of  the  palace  open,  and  the  Sultan  emerges  from  his 
seclusion  in  an  open  carriage  drawn  by  Arabian  steeds, 
and  dashes  down  the  little  slope  that  leads  from  the 
palace  to  the  mosque.  At  sight  of  the  Sultan  the 
soldiers  "present  arms  "  and  with  one  voice  shout  aloud 
three  times,  like  the  booming  of  a  cannon  :    ''Padisha- 


242  THE  TURK  AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

him  chok  yaslia!''  which  means,  "Long  live  my  Sul- 
tan!" Then  regimental  bands  burst  out  in  martial 
music.  Before  the  appearance  of  the  Sultan's  carriage, 
a  few  veiled  women  of  his  harem,  young  sons,  and  male 
relatives  proceed  to  the  courtyard  of  the  mosque.  In 
marked  contrast  to  the  gorgeous  attire  of  the  imperial 
princes  and  other  high  dignitaries,  Abdul- Hamid  is  very 
plainly  dressed  in  a  black  suit  and  a  red  fez.  Nor  is 
the  contrast  less  marked  between  him  and  Osman  Pasha, 
the  hero  of  Plevna,  a  brave  figure  of  hardy  and  robust 
manhood,  who  sits  opposite  the  thin  and  pale  Sultan  in 
the  royal  carriage.  After  half  an  hour  at  prayer  Abdul- 
Hamid  reappears  in  an  open  landau.  He  takes  the 
reins  of  the  horses  in  his  own  hands,  and  drives  back 
up  the  hill  to  the  palace,  while  many  courtiers  follow  on 
foot,  to  come  to  his  aid  if  needed.  Cheers  and  music, 
pomp  and  show  follow  him  to  the  gates  of  his  palace. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  gorgeous  royal  events  of  fre- 
quent occurrence  in  all  the  world.  The  Caliph  of  two 
hundred  million  Mohammedans,  and  the  sovereign  of 
thirty  million  subjects,  attended  not  only  by  his  own 
household,  but  by  the  brightly  costumed  ambassadors 
and  consuls  of  all  nations,  appears  to  the  public. 
Official  horse-tails,  which  have  led  the  way  to  victory 
or  defeat  on  a  thousand  battle  fields ;  jewel-hilted 
swords,  sashes,  turbans,  and  fezes,  worn  by  the  males 
in  line,  even  to  the  little  boys  on  Arabian  steeds, 
lend  the  charm  of  novelty  to  a  pageant  which,  for 
mere   magnificence,  is  seldom  equaled   under  the  sun. 

Abdul-Hamid  is  a  small  man,  with  a  pale  face  and 
weak  figure.  He  is  aptly  called  "the  Sick  Man,"  for 
not  only    is    his  country  "sick,"  in  the  sense  of  ruin 


244  THE  TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

and  decay,  but  the  Sultan  is  really  the  most  sickly- 
looking  sovereign  in  Europe.  It  is  said  that  he  is 
always  cross  and  continually  in  a  rage.  No  wonder, 
since  he  has  so  many  wives  to  take  care  of  ;  for  the  num- 
ber of  his  harem  runs  up  into  the  hundreds.  His  char- 
acter may  best  be  judged  by  his  acts,  and  certainly  he 
has  performed  no  good  acts  worthy  of  notice.  Mr. 
Gladstone  speaks  of  him  as  "  God's  curse  to  mankind  "  ; 
while  the  Turkish  journals  of  Constantinople,  on  his  last 
birthday,  January  19,  with  many  flourishes  of  Oriental 
adulation,  made  it  an  occasion  of  raptured  outbursts 
praising  the  goodness  and  beneficence  of  Allah  for 
making  the  earth  a  present  of  such  a  sublime  being  as 
his  Majesty  the  Sultan  Abdul-Hamid  II.  "To-day 
the  eyes  of  the  good  believers  are  blinded  by  the  effect 
of  this  dazzlinor  ligrht  of  Islam,  and  their  hearts  over- 
flow  with  happiness,"  says  Sabach — regardless  of  Chris- 
tian hearts  that  overflow  with  bitterness  ;  and,  indeed, 
many  Islam  hearts,  too,  who  have  experienced  the 
effect  of  their  master's  unspeakable  tyranny. 

The  Sultan's  glittering  palace  on  the  Bosphorus  is 
replete  with  associations  of  tragical  events.  From  this 
abode  ofo  forth  edicts  which  involve  the  massacre  of 
many  thousand  Christians.  Nevertheless,  this  titled 
criminal,  whose  career  of  bloodthirsty  atrocity  sur- 
passes that  of  Nero  himself,  is  not  without  his  punish- 
ment. Indeed,  the  life  of  a  bootblack  is  happier  than 
his.  In  constant  dread  of  his  life,  he  lives  a  prisoner 
within  the  walls  of  his  palace.  His  walks  and  drives 
never  extend  beyond  the  park  of  the  Yildiz,  which 
is  vigilantly  guarded,  even  in  broad  daylight,  with 
more  care  than  any  American  penitentiary.     His  sleep- 


ARCH    IN    RUINS   IN   ASIA   MINOR. 


THEATER    IN    RUINS. 


246        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

ing  apartment  is  watched  over  at  night  with  more  cir- 
cumspection than  the  criminal  cell  of  an  ill-fated  con- 
vict. When  the  Armenian  atrocities  were  at  their 
height,  his  uneasiness — indeed,  his  insanity — drove  him 
to  such  unheard-of  precautions  as  to  cliange  his  body- 
guard every  two  hours.  He  would  trust  no  one,  even 
in  the  palace  ;  and  woe  to  anyone  who  might  fall  under 
his  suspicion  !  One  of  his  grand  viziers  narrowly  es- 
caped, and  fled  to  British  protection.  The  ghosts  of  one 
hundred  thousand  Armenians  seem  to  haunt  him,  even 
in  his  most  secluded  chambers.  I  can  never  forget  my 
first  impression  of  him,  when  he  drove  back  to  the 
Yildiz  Kiosk  from  the  Mosque  of  Hamadieh.  His  black 
character  was  as  indelibly  stamped  on  his  countenance 
as  a  seal  on  a  governmental  document.  What  a  scared 
and  hunted  look  on  his  thin  face  !  and  what  a  twinkle 
of  treacherous  cunning  and  cruelty  in  his  deep-set 
black  eyes  !  He  is  a  "sick  man,"  and  his  contagious 
disease  has  so  spread  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  his  unhappy  empire  that  it  will  not  be 
very  long  before  the  European  doctors  will  pronounce 
her  "  dead,"  and  proceed  to  the  burial  ceremony. 

The  sluggish  Turk,  with  his  iron  feet  of  destruction, 
treads  on  ground  under  which  sleep,  mute  and  silent, 
the  Roman  and  Greek  sires  and  sages  of  civilization. 
With  a  creed  of  bloody  conquest  and  ruin,  he  has 
always  marked  his  incursions  by  the  destruction  of 
everything  and  the  building  of  nothing.  Truly,  as  we 
gaze  upon  the  dilapidated  desolation  of  Ambition's  airy 
halls,  we  find  the  saying  true  that  "  Wherever  the  Sul- 
tan's horses'  hoofs  tread,  there  the  grass  never  grows 


THE   TURKS.  247 

again."  The  glory  of  twenty  nations,  the  seats  of  great 
military  chieftains  and  empires,  thriving  commercial 
cities,  palaces  of  fame  and  wealth,  speak  to  the  traveler 
in  Asia  Minor  from  their  voiceless  desolation  of  fiery 
hearts  and  gallant  spirits  that  are  no  more.  No  longer 
do  the  skies  of  Ionia  smile  on  the  brilliant  array  of  poets 
who  sang  beneath  her  azure  arch.  Over  the  graves 
of  Homeric  heroes  roam  sheep  and  oxen.  The  land  of 
deathless  sages  has  been  plunged  into  thickest  night 
of  desolation  and  woe.  The  misrule  of  five  centuries 
has  not  only  erased  the  vestiges  of  the  former  inhabi- 
tants, but  has  also  enslaved  the  existing  population  in 
impenetrable  superstition  and  ignorance,  and  cradled 
them  in  a  blind  and  most  debasing  fanaticism.  The 
brutal  tyranny  and  passion  of  the  Turk  have  grown 
more  deadly  with  every  year  that  they  have  been  tol- 
erated, until  now,  in  our  own  day  of  boasted  civiliza- 
tion, the  smoke  from  his  smoldering  embers  of  crime 
arises  in  columns,  to  mar  the  holiness  of  God's  earth. 

Oh,  that  the  trumpet  blast  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury would  awaken  the  slumbering  soul  of  Christen- 
dom, and  raise  up  a  champion  of  freedom  !  Would 
that  this  land  of  enlightenment  might  reflect  a  ray  of 
light  across  the  waters,  where  superstition  and  tyranny 
have  for  ages  cast  a  gloom  over  the  otherwise  bright 
and  peaceful  world  ! 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE  TURKS— MOHAM- 
MEDANISM. 


"There  is  no  God  but  God,  and  Mohammed  is   His  prophet." 
—  The  Mohammedan  Catechism. 

'"PHERE   is  no  other  people  in  the  world  whose  re. 

^  ligion  forms  such  an  important  element  in  tlieir 
national  life  as  Mohammedanism  forms  in  the  national 
life  of  the  Turkish  people.  So  closely  interwoven  are  the 
religion  and  the  state  that  for  a  Turk  to  deny  Moham- 
medanism is  to  renounce  all  claims  to  his  nationality, 
and  for  a  foreigner  to  become  a  Moslem  is  to  become  a 
Turk.  To  understand,  therefore,  in  any  degree  the 
Turk  and  his  country,  a  study  of  his  religion  is  abso- 
lutely essential. 

The  study  of  Mohammedanism,  moreov^er,  will  cast 
light  upon  otherwise  inexplicable  aspects  of  Oriental 
government.  The  standpoint  of  its  principles  is  the 
only  one  from  which  to  survey  the  peculiar  condition 
of  the  Turkish  and  kindred  peoples,  who  are  just  now 
arresting  the  attention  of  the  civilized  world. 

Moreover,  a  view  of  this  religion  will  be  found  ex- 
ceedingly salutary  in  its  broadening  tendency,  and  also 
serve  to  clarify  our  ideas,  as  well  as  add  to  our  appreci- 
ation, of  the  supreme  features  of  Christianity.  For 
this  purpose,  a  survey  of  Moliammedanism  has  many 
advantages,  because  it  has  so  much  in  common  with 
Christianity,    and    because    differences,    apparently    so 

248 


THE    RELIGION   OF   THE   TURKS.  249 

slight,  have  resulted  in  so  great  a  contrast  in  the  spir- 
itual power  of  the  two  religions. 

Naturally,  a  person's  religious  belief  and  loyalty  are 
determined  by  birth,  environment,  and  education.  We 
embrace  the  religion  of  our  fathers,  and  with  it  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  bigotry,  inherited  and  acquired.  When 
such  a  truth  is  put  to  us  in  the  nature  of  a  specific 
charge,  we,  of  course,  deny  it ;  but  a  careful  examina- 
tion attests  its  verity.  We  are  more  or  less  partial, 
narrow,  biased,  in  our  religious  ideas,  and  are  quick  to 
condemn  another  system  because  it  does  not  readily 
adapt  itself  to  our  accustomed  cast  of  thought. 

Let  us,  then,  place  ourselves  under  Oriental  skies,  and 
for  the  time  become  right  loyal  Moslems,  asking  our- 
selves why  these  infidels  and  philosophers  brand  us 
heretics,  and  assign  to  our  religion  an  inferior  place. 

There  is  much  misunderstandiiiof  amone  Christians, 
and  the  world  in  general,  regarding  the  Mohammedan 
faith  and  worship.  Especially  among  the  Christians, 
ideas  of  Mohammedanism  are  inexcusably  vague,  and 
are  consequently  obstacles  in  the  way  to  a  correct  under- 
standing of  a  religious  force  that  has  had  no  little  part 
in  the  history  of  the  world. 

If  the  follower  of  Christ  will  study  the  Koran  ear- 
nestly, he  will  not  fail  to  find  many  features  that  strik- 
ingly resemble  the  leading  texts  of  his  own  faith.  In- 
deed, he  will  be  surprised  to  find  that  the  religion  which 
he  formerly  supposed  to  be  the  offspring  of  heathenism, 
abounding  in  superstition  and  folly,  is  pregnant  with 
truths  that  have  been  inculcated  into  his  own  heart  and 
life  since  childhood. 

And  it  is  not  difficult  to  discover  a  reason  for  the 


250        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

similarity.  That  Mohammedanism  should  resemble 
Christianity,  and  that  the  Koran  should  compare  closely 
with  the  Bible,  is  only  a  natural  outcome  of  the  train- 
ing of  the  great  Prophet. 

From  his  earliest  years  he  was  taught  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  and  regarded  them  with  a  love  and 
respect  which  he  did  not  withdraw  in  his  old  age,  for  to 
the  last  he  spoke  of  the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God. 
Besides  the  direct  influence  of  the  Hoh'  Scriptures,  the 
surroundings  of  his  household  were  essentially  Chris- 
tian in  character.  His  favorite  wife  embraced  the 
teachings  of  Christ;  one  of  his  other  wives  was  a 
Jewess,  and  most  of  his  highly  esteemed  counselors 
were  of  the  Christian  persuasion.  All  this  could  not 
fail  to  exert  a  powerful  influence,  and  Mohammed  man- 
ifested it  in  all  his  writings,  paying  homage  to  Christ 
to  the  last,  and  looking  upon  Him  as  the  greatest  of 
prophets. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  "If  this  is  true,  why 
did  Mohammed  seek  to  establish  a  new  religion  ?" 

He  did  not  claim  to  be  more  than  a  man.  Although 
his  followers  ascribe  miracles  to  him,  he  did  not  claim 
to  perform  them,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  denounce 
them.  He  fought  not  against  the  Bible,  not  against 
Christianity  in  its  purity.  He  did,  however,  zealously 
attack  Christianity  as  corruptK'  practiced  by  tlie  people 
of  his  time.  Moreover,  he  denied  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  violently  opposed  the  apotheosis  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  whom  the  popular  conception  really  re- 
garded as  a  goddess.  In  opposition  to  this,  he  advo- 
cated the  absolute  unity  of  the  Deity,  considering  these 
other  beliefs  as  impious  and  unworthy  a  Supreme  Being. 


252  THE   TURK   AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

And,  in  the  light  of  history,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
in  his  position  Mohammed  manifested  an  elevated  re- 
ligious nature  and  a  purified  vision.  This  idea  of  God's 
unity  was  an  advance  upon  the  crude  conception  of  the 
time,  as  it  was  a  reaction  from  the  prevailing  polythe- 
istic nations.  Had  this  been  all,  Mohammed,  so  far  as 
regards  his  conception  of  God,  might  still  be  honored 
as  a  Christian  reformer  instead  of  a  prophet  of  a  new 
order.  But  this  was  not  all.  With  this  idea  of  the 
unity  of  God  was  joined  that  of  His  supremacy,  and 
that  the  most  absolute.  Fatherhood  was  foreign  to 
any  of  His  attributes.  Above  all,  infinite,  omnipotent, 
He  was  the  very  impersonation  of  Eternal  Force.  In- 
deed, some  one  has  aptly  described  the  Moslem  religion 
as  "a  pantheism  of  will."  In  some  of  his  aspects  we 
are  reminded  of  the  God  of  Judaism;  but  even  in 
Judaism  we  find  a  very  important  attribute  which  is 
absent  from  Islam's  Allah,  namely,  that  of  justice. 
Islam's  God  is  not  a  just  God  so  much  as  He  is  an  all- 
powerful  God.  He  is  the  universal  Sovereign,  and 
obedience  is  the  prime  duty  of  his  subjects  every- 
where. 

Notwithstanding  the  oneness  and  supremacy  of  the 
God  of  Mohammedanism,  there  are  other  spirits,  or 
angel-powers,  which  hold  a  subordinate  place,  and  yet 
are  essential  to  an  understanding  of  the  religion.  Of 
these  Satan,  or  Eblis,  is  not  the  least  important,  al- 
though not  occupying  a  more  conspicuous  place  than 
the  Satan  of  Christianity.  Gabriel  and  Michael  are 
mentioned  often  in  the  Koran  :  they  are  the  angels  of 
power.  Death  is  personified  in  the  grim  Azrael.  And 
Israfel,  "  whose  heart-strings  are  a  lute,"  whose  legend 


THE    RELIGION   OF   THE   TURKS.  253 

furnished  Poe  material  for  the  beautiful  lyric  of   that 
name,  is  the  Angel  of  Resurrection. 

"In  Heaven  a  spirit  doth  dwell, 

Whose  heart-strings  are  a  lute; 
None  sing  so  wildly  well, 

As  the  angel  Israfel, 
And  the  giddy  stars  (so  legends  tell), 

Ceasing  their  hymns,  attend  the  spell 
Of  his  voice,  all  mute." 

God  brings  himself  into  relation  with  his  subjects  in 
a  number  of  different  ways,  sometimes  throuoh  inspired 
prophets,  and  sometimes  through  sacred  writings.  Mo- 
hammed and  his  followers  believed  that  he  himself  was 
to  be  the  legitimate  and  final  successor  of  Adam,  Noah, 
Moses,  Jesus,  and  other  men,  who  were  considered  es- 
pecial ambassadors,  chosen  by  the  Almighty.  The 
Pentateuch  was  not  discarded,  and  the  Psalms  and 
Gospels  were  accepted  as  sacred  books.  But  taking- 
precedence  of  all  these  is  the  Koran,  said  to  be  the 
personal  product  of  the  inspired  Mohammed,  in  which 
he  embodied  his  creed  for  iiis  followers. 

It  would  be  entirely  foreign  to  the  purpose  of  this 
sketch  to  make  an  exhaustive  survey  of  even  the 
prominent  tenets  of  this,  to  the  Moslem,  book  of  all 
books.  The  curious  as  well  as  the  accurate  student 
we  refer  to  the  Koran  itself,  which,  in  a  number  of 
English  translations,  is  interesting  to  read  and  profit- 
able to  study. 

One  of  the  prominent  doctrines  of  the  Koran  is  that 
of  predestination,  which  is  presented  in  its  most  abso- 
lute form.  God  has  foreordained  some  to  an  eternal 
happiness  in   Paradise  ;  others  are  foredoomed  to  the 


254        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

everlastinor  torment  of  hell,  and  naught  can  intervene 
between  the  purpose  of  the  Supreme  Being  and  its 
eternal  execution. 

The  practical  morality  of  the  precepts  of  the  Koran 
will  not  be  questioned.  Intoxicating  drinks  of  all  kinds 
are  prohibited  the  true  believer,  and  in  the  Orient  the 
difference  between  precept  and  practice  is  not  so  very 
great.  We  also  find  gambling  deprecated  as  a  sin  and 
proscribed  by  punishment. 

Mohammedanism,  more  than  any  o'ther  religion,  has 
gained  its  proselytes  by  force  of  arms.  It  is  only 
in  keeping  with  the  prevailing  ideas  of  that  religion 
that  the  true  believer  should  hate  infidels  and  discharge 
the  God-like  duty  of  making  war  upon  them,  even  if 
connected  by  ties  of  consanguinity.  To  the  Moslem, 
then,  warfare  is  a  religious  duty  and  every  crusade  an 
aggression  on  behalf  of  Him  to  whom  all  men  owe  life 
and  allegiance.  To  this  principle  may  be  ascribed  the 
motives  that  impelled  Mohammedans  throughout  their 
long  career  of  bloody  conquest.  It  was  a  natural  out- 
come of  what  they  conceived  as  a  religious  duty. 

Travelers  in  European  and  Asiatic  Turkey  have 
noted  with  admiration  the  devotional  spirit  of  the 
faithful  in  their  ceremonies  and  in  the  observance  of 
feasts  and  religious  holidays.  Our  Friday  is  the  Sab- 
bath of  Islam,  when  sermons  are  preached  and  prayers 
offered  in  all  places  of  worship.  On  this  day  every 
Mohammedan  is  compelled  to  repair  to  the  mosque 
and  take  part  in  the  devout  worship  of  Allah.  Do  not 
make  the  mistake  of  thinking  that  this  is  done  merely 
as  a  stern,  sterile  duty  ;  rather  is  it  thought  a  privilege, 
and,  as  we  have  intimated,  the  humble  spirit  of  devo- 


256        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

tion  is  Striking.  A  visit  to  one  of  these  mosques  on  a 
quiet  Friday  noon  would  be  an  eloquent  homily  on  the 
true  spirit  with  which  to  approach  the  Almighty — a 
spirit    so  often   sadly  lacking   in   the  Christian  people. 

I  have  intimated  the  importance  of  the  idea  of  God 
as  influencing  and  molding  a  nation's  religion.  Look- 
ing back  over  history,  we  cannot  but  be  impressed  by 
the  fact  that  culture  and  religion  have  ever  exerted  a 
reciprocal  influence  on  each  other.  The  peculiar  con- 
ception which  a  people  may  hold  of  God  determines 
not  only  its  religion  but  its  civilization.  Looking  at 
Mohammedanism  from  this  point  of  view,  what  is  the 
character  of  the  civilization  we  should  naturally  expect 
as  a  result?  What  is  the  civilizing  potency  of  Moham- 
medanism ? 

We  have  seen  that  the  Moslem  God  is  an  imperson- 
ation of  arbitrary  zvill ;  that  he  is  synonymous  with 
cold,  loveless,  authoritative  supremacy  ;  that  the  first, 
last,  and  only  duty  of  his  subjects  is  slavish  obedience; 
in  a  word,  that  the  idea  of  liberty,  in  any  true  sense,  is 
practically  excluded.  Now,  what  is  the  first  requisite 
of  high  civilization  ?  Is  it  not  a  consciousness  of  per- 
sonal independence,  of  liberty  ?  This  principle  has 
been  at  the  basis  of  all  great  developments  of  individ- 
ual genius.  Without  it,  in  one  form  or  other,  no  na- 
tion has  ever  really  flourished  and  come  to  a  high  state 
of  culture. 

The  first  point,  then,  that  we  observe  is  the  utter  ab- 
sence of  the  principle  of  liberty  in  the  Mohammedan 
religion. 

If  we  look  at  the  Islam  conception  of  God  from  a 
moral  standpoint,  we  find  its   effects  just  as  baneful. 


THE    RELIGION   OF   THE   TURKS.  257 

The  believer  does  right  because  Allah  commands  it, 
and  because  it  is  his  to  obey.  This  is  placing  moral 
obligation  on  a  low  basis — on  no  higher  ground  than 
the  divine  will.  The  doctrine  of  predestination,  also, 
which  is  really  a  corollary  of  a  pantheistic  will,  does 
away  in  a  measure  with  man's  free  moral  agency,  and 
divests  him  of  that  attribute  which,  of  all  others,  con- 
tributes to  his  nobility.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  a 
correct  conception  of  duty  and  an  appreciation  of  man's 
eternal  responsibility  are  necessary  to  any  advance- 
ment in  morals,  and  that  the  character  of  a  nation's 
morality  is  ever  a  reliable  index  to  the  worth  and  per- 
manence of  its  civilization.  And  it  must  be  conceded 
that  the  Mohammedan  conception  is  not  entirely  bar- 
ren of  good.  The  recognition  of  God's  supremacy  ex- 
ercises a  salutary  constraint  on  those  who  perhaps  would 
abstain  from  wrong  from  no  higher  motive.  Its  influ- 
ence on  the  savage  mind  must  not  be  condemned  as 
evil,  although  there  is  surely  little  room  for  the  devel- 
opment of  the  moral  nature.  The  idea  of  the  unity 
of  the  Godhead  also  precludes  idolatry,  and  this  is  no 
small  step  toward  the  higher  and  truer  life. 

Again,  it  will  be  conceded  that  a  religion  approaches 
perfection  in  so  far  as  it  proves  itself  adequate  to  man's 
complete  nature.  In  its  broadest  sense,  it  exists  for  the 
elevation  of  the  soul  in  all  its  functions,  and  a  religion 
which  suppresses  any  of  these  betrays  its  inadequacy, 
its  weakness,  and  its  imperfection.  If  it  satisfy  the 
reason  to  the  exclusion  of  the  heart ;  if  it  minister  to 
the  higher  emotions,  with  no  deference  to  rational  de- 
mands ;  in  short,  if  it  is  not  as  broad  as  man's  nature 
and  as  high  as  man's  loftiest  aspirations,  tlien   that   re- 


258        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

ligion  is  unworthy  of  humanity.  Arraigned  before  such 
a  tribunal,  the  unworthiness  of  Mohammedanism  be- 
comes apparent.  It  does  not  teach  the  law  of  love  as 
the  basis  of  morality  ;  it  does  not  believe  in  the  father- 
hood of  God  or  in  the  brotherhood  of  man.  Love, 
which  is  the  leaven  of  all  human  relations,  is  practically 
eliminated;  and  Mohammedanism,  thus  failing  to  call 
forth  so  essential  a  part  of  man's  nature,  must  be  con- 
demned. "^ 

Christianity  pleads  :  "  God  is  love  ;  trust  Him."  Mo- 
hammedanism commands:  "  God  is  2£/////  obey  Him." 
Mohammedanism  is  sterile,  barren,  and  irksome  in  its 
principle  ;  Christianity  is  fruitful  and  permeating — a 
yoke  that  is  easy,  a  burden  that  is  light.  The  Christian 
God  is  in  us  and  with  us,  and  it  is  the  delight  of  His 
children  to  breathe  out  their  souls  in  prayer  to  Him. 

And  here  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  a  strange 
fact.  It  is  difficult  to  see  what  place  prayer  can  possi- 
bly have  in  the  Mohammedan  theology,  and  yet  we 
have  previously  spoken  of  the  humble  devotion  of  the 
faithful.  However,  we  shall  understand  this  perfectly 
when  we  remember  that  even  prayer  springs  from  obe- 
dience to  Allah,  and  the  devotion  that  has  been  so  ex- 
tolled, like  most  of  the  liturgy,  is  a  mere  formalism 
arising  from  no  love  for,  or  higher  yearnings  after,  an 
infinite  Father. 

The  effect  of  all  these  detrimental  influences  may,  I 
think,  be  found  manifested  in  the  character  of  the  indi- 
vidual Moslem.  The  despotic  principle,  which  holds 
so  prominent  a  position  in  Islam,  seems  to  have  infected 
society  and  government  as  well,  for  nowhere  is  tyranny 
more   cruel   and   arbitrary   than   in   the   Mohammedan 


THE    RELIGION   OF   THE   TURKS.  259 

countries.     The  religious  slave  becomes  the  political 
slave  also. 

Mohammedanism  was  born  in  the  Orient,  was  the 
product  of  Oriental  ideas,  and  has  never  ventured  be- 
yond the  Orient  in  permanent  conquest.  Yet  the  part 
it  has  played  in  history  cannot  but  give  rise  to  the 
double  question  :  "  Is  Mohammedanism  of  divine 
origin  ?  Has  its  influence,  on  the  whole,  been  for  good 
or  for  evil  ?"  These  are  not  idle  questions,  and  upon 
their  answers  hang  solutions  to  many  more  important 
problems.  If  not  to  the  supernatural,  to  what  or  whom 
can  we  ascribe  its  rapid  inception  and  growth,  its 
miraculous  unifying  power  as  exerted  over  a  thousand 
warring  Arab  tribes  ?  To  what  can  we  ascribe  its  do- 
minion over  two  hundred  millions  of  souls  ?  There  is 
no  one  who  will  say  that  its  influence  has  been  entirely 
on  the  side  of  evil,  or  that  it  has  not  been  a  factor  in 
the  onward  march  of  the  race  ;  but  I  think  it  can  be 
just  as  certainly  asserted  that  its  mission  for  good  is  at 
an  end.  For,  while  Christianity  admits  of  almost  infi- 
nite progress,  Mohammedanism  raises  the  devotees  to  a 
certain  stage,  and  leaves  them  there,  and  is  impotent  to 
lift  them  higher.  For,  this  reason,  the  future  of  Islam 
is  limited.  The  race  has  reached  that  stage  in  its  devel- 
opment when  it  can  cast  aside  the  useless  shell  of  former 
growth  and  build  "  more  stately  mansions  "  for  the  soul. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  add  to  these  general  obser- 
vations upon  the  underlying  principles  of  Moham- 
medanism some  description  of  a  few  of  the  peculiar 
ceremonies,  beliefs,  and  religious  practices  which  char- 
acterize the  outward  aspect  of  Islam. 

Mohammedanism  is  essentially  a  relioion  of  form  ; 


26o        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

hence  the  disciple  of  Islam  does  not  thank  God  for 
past  blessings  or  implore  his  protection  for  the  future, 
though  he  rehearses  his  prayers  ostentatiously  five 
times  a  day.  Islamism  means  submission  ;  hence  the 
efificacy  of  the  service  is  in  the  number  of  times  the 
neinaz,  or  prayer,  is  said.  Before  worship  a  prepara- 
tory service  of  ablest,  or  ablution  with  cold  water,  is  ob- 
ligatory. If  this  were  not  done  in  strict  conformity 
with  the  established  usage  the  subsequent  prayers 
would  be  of  no  avail. 

In  the  courtyard  of  every  mosque  a  large  basin 
of  water  is  provided,  and  the  faithful,  standing 
straight,  and  facing  due  north  or  south,  advance  in 
order  to  it,  and  say  Bismillak,  meaning,  "It  is  in 
God's  name  I  do  this."  The  hands  are  washed  to  the 
wrist;  the  mouth  and  nose  three  times;  then,  begin- 
ning at  the  toes,  the  feet  are  washed  to  the  ankles, 
after  which  the  right  hand  is  dipped  gently  into  water 
and  a  part  of  the  head  is  wet.  The  arms  are  washed 
to  the  elbows,  beginning  at  the  finger  tips.  Then  the 
rest  of  the  head  is  wet,  the  water  being  dipped  up  by 
the  right  hand.  The  inside  of  the  ears  must  also  be 
washed  with  the  index  finger  of  either  hand,  and  the 
back  of  the  ears  with  the  thumb.  So  extremely  exact- 
ing is  this  ritual  that  the  slightest  digression  or  omis- 
sion necessitates  an  entire  repetition.  Practice  makes 
them  expert,  however,  and  they  learn  to  do  it  quickly 
and  correctly  according  to  requirements.  The  cere- 
mony is  repeated  three  times.  Exemption  is  allowed 
where  no  water  can  be  obtained,  but  the  form  must  be 
gone  through  by  touching  the  hands  to  dry  earth,  in- 
stead of  dipping  them  into  water. 


262        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

The  time  for  prayers  is  regulated  by  the  sun.  Morn- 
ing prayer  is  said  between  dawn  and  sunrise.  It  is  due 
to  this  requirement  that, Mohammedans  are  early  risers. 
Noonday  prayer  is  said  just  as  the  sun  is  passing  the 
meridian,  and  afternoon  prayer  at  any  time  between 
four  and  five  o'clock.  The  fourth  prayer  comes  at  sun- 
set, and  the  last  prayer  of  the  day  before  retiring.  The 
ritual  for  prayer  is  not  optional  but  imperative,  and 
its  requirements  of  formality  are  as  rigid  as  those  for 
ablution. 

At  almost  every  quarter  of  a  mile  in  a  Mohamme- 
dan city  are  built  the  mosques — solid,  substantial  build- 
ings whose  minarets  are  the  most  beautiful  spires  that 
pierce  the  Levantine  skies,  symmetrical,  lofty,  and  ma- 
jestic. They  contain  neither  pealing  chimes  nor  tolling 
bells,  but  five  times  daily  from  the  top  of  these  are 
heard  the  muezzin's  ezan,  or  call  to  prayer,  in  deep, 
long-drawn  tones,  in  the  strange  and  impressive  Arabic 
tongue : 

"  God  is  almighty !  Mohammed  is  his  apostle  ! 
Prayer  is  better  than  sleep !  Hasten  to  worship ! 
Hasten    to    prosperity!" 

The  sacred  voice  rings  from  every  minaret,  until  the 
sound  goes  around  tlie  Islam  world,  girding  it  with 
these  never-ceasing  vibrations,  keeping  it  awake  and  at 
worship.  The  voice  resounds  in  the  highest  pitch  when 
it  chants,  with  the  threefold  iteration,  Laha-il-Allah  ! 
—"There  is  no  God  but  God."  At  this  call  all  the 
faithful  Moslems  leave  their  enoragrements  at  once  and 
hasten  to  worship,  no  matter  how  inclement  the  weather 
or  how  pressing  their  business.  Their  regular  attend- 
ance and  punctuality  are  bewildering  to  the  Christian 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   TURKS.  263 

world.  Would  that  we,  who,  by  the  Lord's  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead,  have  the  highest  incentive  to  the 
sacred  observance  of  the  First  Day  of  the  week,  might 
take  example  from  Mohammedan  zeal! 

If  a  Mohammedan  is  late,  he  may  at  any  time  join 
with  the  congregation  in  the  service,  but  the  blessing 
to  be  obtained  is  deemed  far  inferior  to  what  would 
have  resulted  had  he  been  on  time.  Tradition  says 
that  a  follower  excused  himself  to  the  Prophet  on  the 
ground  of  saving  lijs  friend  from  drowning,  at  the  time 
of  devotions,  and  hoped  tliat  he  would  be  blessed  for 
the  kindly  act  as  well  as  those  who  were  early  at  prayer. 
The  stern  Prophet  would  not  accept  the  apology. 
"  Though  you  had  camels  enough  to  fill  the  road  from 
Mecca  to  Medina,  all  loaded  with  jewels,  and  should 
give  the  cargo  to  the  poor,  the  blessings  would  not 
equal  those  of  promptness  at  prayer.  Should  )'ou 
commit  the  whole  Koran  to  memory  and  repeat  it 
twice  every  night,  the  blessings  received  would  not 
equal  those  of  beginning  neinaz  witli  the  imam 
(priest).  Should  you  kiH  all  the  enemies*  of  Islam, 
the  great  rewards  would  not  compare  with  those 
of  him  who  is  prompt  at  the  beginning  of  prayer.  If 
by  a  word  the  heavens  and  earth  could  become  paper, 
the  sea  be  turned  into  ink,  and  all  angels  stand  as 
scribes,  yet  they  would  be  unable  to  write  all  the  bless- 
ings you  may  enjoy  for  beginning  prayers  with  the 
imamy  The  Mohammedans  are  deeply  conscious  of 
all  these  warnings  of  their  Prophet,  and,  though  not 
"in  spirit  and  truth,"  yet  they  worship  according  to 
their  forms  most  faithfully. 

The  interior  of   the  mosque  is  considered  most  holy  ; 


264        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

consequently,  all  the  people  take  off  their  shoes  as  they 
step  within  the  shrine,  and  go  through  a  series  of  pious 
movements.  The  religion  of  "  the  Prophet,"  keenly- 
hostile  to  pagan  idolatry,  forbids  pictures,  images,  or 
any  other  representation  of  the  human  form  in  their 
houses  of  worship.  On  the  walls,  however,  are  many 
inscriptions  from  the  Koran,  with  censers  of  burning 
oil  suspended  from  the  dome. 

The  floor  is  beautified  with  the  richest  rugs  of  Ori- 
ental art,  upon  which  the  suppliants  prostrate  them- 
selves in  their  devotions,  with  twenty-six  postures, 
each  following  the  movement  of  the  imavi,  rising  and 
bowing   simultaneously  with  almost  military  precision. 

While  at  prayer,  certain  acts,  such  as  looking  around, 
striking  at  a  fly  to  kill  it,  raising  a  foot  from  the  floor, 
scratching  more  than  three  times  in  one  place  on  the 
body,  laughing  loud  enough  to  be  heard,  must  be  re- 
frained from,  as  they  would  destroy  the  efficacy  of  the 
devotions. 

The  imaniy  who  performs  the  devotional  ceremonies, 
preaches  no  sermon,  but  at  noon  of  each  day  he  reads 
two  chapters  from  the  Koran,  and  then  descends  to 
mingle  with  the  many  worshipers,  placing  himself  on 
a  level  with  the  common  people.  On  Friday,  however, 
the  holy  day  of  the  Mohammedans,  the  devotions  are 
conducted  wMth  unusual  pomp  and  ceremony  ;  the  Koran 
is  recited,  prayers  are  said,  and  generally  a  sermon 
preached. 

The  lanofuag-e  of  the  Mohammedans  in  Asia  Minor 
is  Turkish,  but  the  Koran  is  written  in  the  Meccan 
dialect  of  the  Arabic,  an  unintelligible  tongue  to  the 
masses,  and  only  understood  by  a  few  of  the  best  edu- 


266        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

cated.  Yet  their  tradition  teaches  that  merely  to  hear 
the  sacred  book  read  has  a  miraculous  effect,  bene- 
ficial to  soul  and  body ;  and  so  they  are  made  content 
with  the  empty  sound  of  meaningless  words. 

Here  let  me  take  occasion  to  add  a  word  as  to  the 
origin  and  extent  of  the  influence  of  the  Koran.  The 
Koran,  the  groundwork  of  Islam,  is  divided  into  one 
hundred  and  fourteen  suras,  or  chapters,  originally 
written  on  "  bits  of  stone,  leather,  thigh  bones,"  and 
all  sorts  of  material.  After  the  death  of  Mohammed 
these  scattered  materials  were  collected,  and,  supple- 
mented by  the  Arab's  retentive  memory,  they  were  put 
together  regardless  of  time  or  subject,  one  chapter 
following  another  without  even  chronological  sequence. 
Thus,  while  the  teachings  of  the  Koran  are  sufficiently 
plain,  yet  this  manifest  lack  of  logical  order  renders  it 
of  all  books  the  least  intellif^ible.  But  the  Koran  is 
not  the  whole  of  Islamism.  There  are  traditions 
which  are  as  powerful  as,  and  even  more  respected 
than,  the  Koran  itself.  When  there  is  nothing  in  the 
Koran  to  meet  an  issue,  the  Moslem  would  draw  upon 
the  oral  laws  of  the  Prophet  on  the  basis  of  what 
Mohammed  said,  what  he  did,  what  he  did  not  say,  or 
what  he  allowed  others  to  say  unrebuked.  In  the  six- 
teenth century  Sultan  Suleyman  the  Magnificent  codi- 
fied the  Moslem  law  in  a  volume  of  fifty-five  books, 
which  included,  together  with  all  the  practices  of  wor- 
ship, the  laws — moral,  civil,  political,  judiciary,  mili- 
tary, and  agrarian. 

The  Moslem's  belief  in  a  paradise  beyond  the  grave 
is  all  that  could  be  desired.  The  prayers  that  he  has 
said    will    light  up    his   grave  as  a  lamp;  no    sin  will 


THE    RELIGION   OF   THE   TURKS.  267 

remain  to  be  imputed  to  him  at  the  resurrection  ;  angel 
wings  will  bear  him  aloft,  and  even  should  some  sin 
remain  through  careless  praying  he  still  has  a  chance 
of  escape,  though  he  does  not  believe  in  purgatory. 
If  he  has  children,  their  innocence  will  admit  him  ;  and 
their  g'rief  at  leavinor  their  father  behind  will  take  him 
through  the  gates,  Peter  or  no  Peter!  In  eternity, 
the  momentary  pleasures  of  time  are  to  be  extended  a 
thousand  years,  and  once  in  Paradise  he  has  but  to 
express  his  wishes  and  they  are  immediately  granted. 
His  food  is  served  on  a  golden  plate,  and  the  bones  of 
the  bird  that  has  been  devoured  will  again  assume  full 
plumage  and  fly  away  to  sing  as  of  yore  in  the  leafy 
bowers.  Wine,  which  is  denied  to  the  faithful  here, 
will  be  abundant  there,  but  will  not  intoxicate.  The 
humblest  in  rank  will  have  seventy-two  virgins  of 
immortal  youth  and  angelic  beauty  to  attend  him.  In 
brief,  an  ideal  temporal  paradise,  based  on  the  pleas- 
ures of  earth,  is  to  be  magnified  a  tiiousand-fold 
beyond  the  utmost  limit  of  even  an  Oriental  imagina- 
tion to  depict.     Such  is  their  Elysium. 

If  the  Moiiammedan  description  of  heaven  abounds 
somewhat  in  sensual  imagery,  we  should  remember 
that  it  makes  no  essential  difference  how  we  describe 
the  land  of  the  hereafter,  if  only  we  make  that  descrip- 
tion conform  to  our  ideas  of  true  and  pure  happiness, 
as  all  conceptions  employing  the  material  as  symbols 
of  the  spiritual  must  necessarily  fall  short  of  the  true 
glory  of  heaven.  Whether  we  make  it  a  city  with 
walls  of  jasper  and  streets  of  gold,  echoing  to  the  joy 
of  happy  hearts,  or  see  with  tranquil  vision  an  infinite 
paradise  clothed  with  wonder  and  peopled  with  crea- 


268        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

tions    of    eternal    love — neither    is    heaven  :    both    are 
faulty  metaphors,  halting  figures,  imperfect  symbols. 

If  the  rewards  of  fidelity  are  ideal  according  to 
sensual  standards  of  pleasure,  the  punishments  of  the 
doomed  are  cruel  to  the  other  extreme,  surpassing  in 
horror  Dante's  best  description  of  the  Plutonic  realm. 
The  graves  of  this  class  are  beds  of  hot  coals,  where 
the  bones  are  piled  one  upon  the  other  for  want  of 
room,  and  fused  at  white  heat,  without  loss  of  the 
sense  of  feeling  ;  while  thirst  and  hunger,  with  scourg- 
ings,  will  add  the  spice  of  variety  to  this  roasting 
process,  until  the  resurrection,  when  Satan  will  assume 
control  and  do  as  he  likes  with  them  for  evermore. 

Here  it  seems  evident  that  Mohammed's  political 
and  religious  ideas  were  not  without  reciprocal  influ- 
ence. He  did  not  believe  even  in  a  hell-democracy  ; 
the  Jew-hell  would  not  do  for  the  Christian,  and  so  he 
straightway  orders  a  separate  pit  for  him.  Still,  it  can 
hardly  be  doubted  that  this  arrangement  is  pre-emi- 
nently satisfactory  to  all  concerned.  Communism 
would  be  a  failure  even  in  the  nether  world.  When 
the  Koran  proceeds  in  another  place  to  speak  of  an 
intermediate  state  after  death  and  a  final  resurrection 
and  judgment,  we  are  struck  with  an  apparent,  and 
only  an  apparent,  inconsistency.  Gabriel  is  represented 
at  the  soul's  judgment  holding  scales  in  his  hand  ;  on 
one  side  bad,  and  on  the  other  good,  actions  are  bal- 
anced against  each  other,  and  the  incline  of  this  scale 
becomes  the  forecast  of  the  soul's  destiny. 

The  following  brief  description  of  Mohammed's 
traditional  journey  to  Paradise  may  fittingly  illustrate 
some  of  the  singular  ideas  of  Islam  : 


THE    RELIGION   OF   THE   TURKS.  269 

The  angel  Gabriel  appeared  to  Mohammed  with  an 
Alborak,  a  strange  animal,  a  cross  between  an  ass  and 
a  mule.  This  long-eared  brute  began  to  talk,  demand- 
ing some  concession  from  the  new  Prophet.  Having 
promised  the  creature  a  golden  stall  in  heaven, 
Mohammed  was  permitted  to  mount.  In  the  twin- 
kling of  an  eye  he  arrived  at  Jerusalem,  where,  after  a 
pleasant  interview  with  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  of 
all  ages,  he  ascended  with  Gabriel  upon  a  ladder 
extending  from  the  "City  of  David"  to  the  "City  of 
God." 

As  he  arrived  at  the  portals  of  heaven  he  saw  this 
large  inscription  on  one  side,  "  There  is  no  God  but 
God,"  and,  on  the  other,  "  Mohammed  is  His  apostle.'' 
The  heavenly  host  being  informed  that  Mohammed 
had  come,  at  once  the  pearly  gates  were  thrown  wide 
open  ;  and  upon  entering  he  was  quickly  embraced  by 
Father  Adam,  who  was  happy  to  meet  his  most  illus- 
trious son.  From  this  heaven  the  stars,  which  he 
described  as  being  hollow  silver  balls,  were  suspended 
by  golden  chains.  What  would  become  of  faith  in 
Mohammed's  visions  if  modern  science  were  intro- 
duced among;  his  followers ! 

Quickly  Mohammed  was  taken  from  the  first  to  the 
second  heaven, — a  journey  of  five  hundred  years, — 
where  he  met  the  Angel  of  the  Cocks,  who  was  so  tall 
as  to  reach  from  the  first  to  the  second  heaven. 
Nearly  every  morning  this  big  rooster  joins  God  in 
singing  a  song  that  fills  the  entire  universe  with  its 
melodious  strains.  Every  being  on  earth  hears  them 
but  man.  In  this  heaven  he  met  Noah,  who  was  the 
presiding    dignitary,    and    he    was    tendered    a    most 


270  THE    TURK   AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

cordial  reception  as  he  passed  through  the  golden 
streets.  In  the  third  heaven  he  describes  the  angels 
as  being  very  large.  One  of  the  most  gigantic 
required  seventy  thousand  days'  journey  between  the 
eyes  !  Here,  too,  he  found  the  same  inscription  as  in 
the  first  and  second  heaven.  After  a  short  interview 
with  Moses  in  the  fourth,  or  emerald,  heaven,  he  was 
taken  to  the  fifth  to  meet  Joseph  ;  then  to  the  sixth 
heaven,  of  carbuncle,  where  he  beheld  John  the 
Baptist. 

Radiant  with  light  and  ruled  over  by  Jesus  was  the 
seventh  heaven,  in  which  Ik;  was  attended  by  a  vast 
multitude  of  joyous  inhabitants  and  innumerable 
angels  of  dazzling  beauty,  each  one  of  whom  possessed 
seventy  thousand  heads,  with  seventy  thousand 
mouths  to  each  head,  and  seventy  thousand  tongues  to 
each  mouth — all  singing  and  singing,  day  and  night, 
unceasingly.  Here  the  Prophet,  with  glorious  pomp, 
was  presented  to  God,  whose  face  was  concealed  by 
seventy  thousand  veils.  Here,  too,  on  the  sides  of  the 
divine  throne,  Moliammed  beheld  the  inscription, 
"There  is  no  God  but  God,"  and,  on  the  other, 
"  Mohammed  is  His  apostle."  God,  after  saluting 
Mohammed,  commissioned  him  to  return  to  earth  with 
full  authority.     All  this  the  faithful  most  firmly  believe. 

Charity  is  prescribed  by  the  Koran  for  the  faithful 
in  two  forms — voluntary  and  compulsory.  The  latter 
amounts  to  the  fortieth  part  of  his  possessions,  but  it  is 
only  imposed  when  the  property  aggregates  a  certain 
sum.  Voluntary  charity  is  usually  dispensed  at  the 
time  of  the  feast  following  the  annual  fast. 

The  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  as  a  pious  duty,  is  believed 


2/2        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

to  secure  certain  inestimable  privileges  for  all  who  can 
possibly  make  the  trip.  Nothing  could  test  faith  more 
than  this  long  and  tiresome  journey.  All  the  world 
has  heard  of  the  vast  concourse  there  annually  assembled 
from  all  parts  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe.  At  that 
time  every  highway  leading  to  the  sacred  Kaaba  is  a 
field  hospital  of  the  sick  and  dying,  and  in  the  general 
lack  of  physicians  and  nurses,  when  cholera  prevails,  as 
it  usually  does,  Mecca  becomes  the  disseminating  point 
for  the  plague. 

Honors  are  bestowed  on  the  survivors  of  the 
hazardous  ordeal  of  this  journey,  and  they  are  addressed 
by  the  title  Jiadji.  Among  the  Armenians,  the  same 
title  is  applied  to  those  Christians  who  have  visited 
Jerusalem.  These  Christian  hadjis  usually  have  a 
small  cross  tattooed  on  the  hand  to  indicate  the 
fact  that  they  have  made  the  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy 
Sepulcher. 

Mohammed  has  declared  that  he  will  not  intercede 
in  heaven  for  unmarried  men.  So  marry  you  must,  or 
take  your  chances  !  Remember  Mohammed,  old 
bachelors  and  old  maids,  or  you  will  be  miserable  in 
this  world  and  in  the  world  to  come  !  The  Prophet 
would  have  them  bring  up  large  families,  that  his 
followers  may  outnumber  all  others  in  Paradise.  The 
widows  actually  pray,  "  Let  me  be  married  before  I 
die,  that  I  may  not  be  ashamed  when  I  meet  Allah  !  " 
Allah  will  reward  the  parents  of  children,  those  who 
pay  the  debts  of  another,  and  the  soldiers  in  holy 
wars. 

Like  other  religious  institutions,  Mohammedanism 
has  its  holidays,  feast  and  fast  days.     The  most  impor- 


THE   RELIGION  OF  THE   TURKS,  273 

tant  of  these  is  the  holy  month  of  Ramazan,  a  month 
of  fast  and  penitence.  The  fast  cannot  begin  until  the 
new  moon  has  been  seen.  In  cloudy  weather  messen- 
gers are  sent  to  the  peaks  of  mountains,  and,  they  hav- 
ing ascertained  the  appearance  of  the  moon,  the  Sultan 
telegraphs  to  all  parts  of  the  empire  for  the  fast  to 
begin,  and  local  announcement  is  made  by  the  firino-  of 
cannon  at  sunrise.  From  the  rising  to  the  setting  of 
the  sun.  for  the  entire  month,  no  food  or  drink  may 
pass  the  lips,  not  even  tobacco.  Indeed,  some  go  to 
such  undue  rigor  as  even  to  abstain  from  conversation 
for  fear  of  taking  too  much  air  into  their  mouths,  and 
thus  breaking  their  fast,  in  which  case  they  would  have 
to  keep  the  sixty  subsequent  days. 

Even  the  touch  of  a  Christian  is  avoided  during 
Rainazaii.  As  every  physical  enjoyment  is  proscribed 
but  sleep,  devotees  sleep  nearly  all  day,  except  when  at 
worship.  "God  bless  the  man  who  first  invented 
sleep."  Those  wandering  in  the  streets  are  like  mad- 
men, so  that  Christians  do  well  to  keep  out  of  their  way. 
The  asking  of  questions  by  "  infidel  dogs  "  is  promptly 
rebuked.  The  law  is  paralyzed,  the  fact  that  they  have 
all  been  fasting  being  a  sufficient  excuse  for  all  sorts  of 
wicked  performances.  Business  is  at  a  standstill,  and 
fanaticism  has  full  sway. 

At  home,  on  every  day  of  Ramazan,  toward  even- 
ing, with  food  prepared,  all  await  the  signal  cannon. 
At  sunset  the  minarets  are  illuminated,  the  cannon  is 
fired,  and,  at  the  nmezzins  call  from  the  slender  spires, 
the  fasting  is  suddenly  changed  into  feasting.  Night 
is  virtually  turned  into  day.  There  is  a  hasty  scramble 
for  something   to   eat,  and   excessive  eating,  dancing, 


274        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

and  singing  continue  until  late  in  the  night.  This  fast 
and  feast  are  held  in  honor  of  the  time  when  Mohammed 
claimed  that  God  revealed  the  Koran  to  him  by  His 
archangel.  Moslems  believe  that  Abraham,  Moses, 
and  Jesus  also  received  divine  revelations  during  this 
month. 

Some  traditions  attribute  this  celebration  to  another 
event.  One  day  when  Mohammed  was  wandering  in 
the  desert  one  of  his  camels  fled.  Poor  Mohammed 
pursued  all  day,  without  eating  or  drinking,  and  captured 
it  about  sunset.  Mohammedans  are  not  ceitain  which 
day  of  the  month  this  occurred,  so  in  order  to  make 
sure  they  celebrate  the  whole  month. 

The  green-turbaned  Turks  are  the  descendants  of 
the  prophet  Mohammed,  through  his  daughter  Fatima, 
who  married  Ali,  the  faithful  disciple.  They  are  known 
as  Emirs,  and  enjoy  religious  and  political  preference. 
Having  a  chief  of  their  own,  who  is  a  sovereign  among 
them,  even  to  the  infliction  of  punishment,  they  form  a 
religions  institution  perpetuating  the  spirit  of  Islamism, 
as  the  janizaries  in  their  day  kept  up  the  militar)'  spirit 
of  the  empire. 

Besides  these,  there  are  several  other  peculiar 
Mohammedan  orders.  We  shall  first  describe  the 
Dervishes.  The  Dervish  is  an  historic  figure,  with 
many  orders,  the  first  one  having  been  founded  thirty- 
seven  years  after  the  death  of  Mohammed.  There  are 
different  classes,  itinerant  and  local,  asceticism  being 
the  most  distinctive  feature  of  almost  all  the  different 
orders.  As  a  religious  body  they  are  held  in  great 
veneration  by  the  Moslem  public  everywhere,  and  their 


THE    RELIGION   OF   THE   TURKS.  2/5 

influence  in  stimulating-  the  religious  fanaticism  of  the 
Islam  troops  in  times  of  war  is  considerable. 

By  far  the  lowest  in  the  order  of  Dervishes  is  the 
religious  beggar.  On  many  occasions,  always  to  the 
satisfaction  of  my  intense  curiosity,  I  have  visited  the 
haunts  of  these  degraded  creatures.  With  the  maxim, 
"  Poverty  is  my  glory,"  they  live  a  hermit  life,  some- 
what after  the  fashion  of  their  Prophet,  or,  indeed,  more 
like  the  Grecian  philosopher  Diogenes,  with  no  care  in 
life  but  to  find  a  place  to  sleep  and  something  to  eat. 
Their  abodes,  in  deserted  quarters  of  the  city,  or  in 
mountain  caves,  are  destitute  of  furniture,  and  those  of 
the  most  rigid  devotees  have  not  even  bedding  or  a 
cushion.  In  personal  appearance  they  are  the  most 
hideous-looking  beings  in  the  world.  They  wear 
sheepskins,  and  have  their  whiskers  and  hair  hanging 
down  over  their  faces  and  shoulders.  They  ahnost 
always  carry  sharp  hatchets  in  their  hands  for  protec- 
tion, and  go  begging  in  the  bazaars,  and  praying  in  the 
streets  in  Arabic.  Cut  off  from  all  family  associations, 
their  lives  are  entirely  sanctified  to  their  so-called  mo- 
nastic institution. 

Mevlevi,  or  Dancing  Dervishes,  are  very  graceful, 
and  entirely  different  from  those  above  described,  in 
manner,  dress,  and  principles,  and  are  more  human 
in  personal  appearance,  though  at  times  quite  frantic  in 
action.  They  are  generally  found  in  octagon-shaped 
tekieJis,  or  chapels,  with  polished  floors,  and  wear 
close-fitting  suits,  with  loose  petticoats,  and  conical 
hats  of  grey  felt.  After  the  Koran  is  expounded,  the 
usual  nemaz  recited,  and  kisses  exchanored,  the  erace- 
ful  spinning  begins  under  the  leadership  of  Semar  Zan, 


2/6        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

director  of  the  performance.  Arms  are  crossed  on  the 
breast,  with  hands  on  the  shoulders.  Slowly  at  first, 
then  faster  as  they  warm  up,  the  arms  and  skirts  are 
extended,  and,  to  the  stran^je  tune  of  the  flute  music, 
they  move  around  and  pass  one  another,  but  never 
touch.  With  brains  crazed  by  the  delirious  dance, 
steadily  the  spell  increases  until  the  climax  is  reached, 
when  it  decreases  to  the  finish  ;  about  one  hour  being 
the  time  for  a  single  dance. 

Not  less  curiously  interesting  are  the  rifai,  or  Howl- 
ing Dervishes — demons  of  religious  fanaticism,  who,  in 
a  shell  of  a  building  decorated  with  spikes,  chains,  dag- 
gers, and  like  implements  of  torture,  excite  themselves, 
and,  swinging  backward  and  forward  in  circles,  repeat 
all  the  names  of  God,  accompanied  with  the  awful  cry 
of  La-il-la-il !  Hoo-yaJi-Hoii  !  Beads  of  perspiration 
form  on  the  face,  which  is  distorted  as  if  by  mental 
anguish.  Foaming  at  the  mouth  like  madmen,  they 
proceed,  with  the  fearful  energy  of  deep  fervor  and 
rapture,  to  cut  themselves  with  knives,  swallow  swords 
and  fire,  pierce  their  ears,  burn  their  bodies,  until,  all 
the  physical  powers  overcome,  they  swoon  and  fall 
bleeding  to  the  floor.  Two  elder  devotees  will  calmly 
approach  the  skeik,  vvitli  whisperings  of  sacred  words, 
and  have  a  skewer  thrust  through  the  cheek.  You 
may  examine  and  see  that  there  is  no  legerdemain. 

Islam  is  not  lacking  in  sects.  Indeed,  they  are  in- 
numerable, with  infinite  shades  between  them.  But 
there  are  two  great  divisions,  known  in  the  Moslem 
world  as  Sunnites  and  Shiites.  Siinnites,  by  far  the 
greater  in  numbers,  follow  the  first  three  Caliphs  after 
Mohammed ;  while    the    Shiites,   chiefly    confined    to 


A   DERVISH    BEGGAR. 


DANCING    DEKVISIIF.S. 


2/8        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Persia,  regard  these  as  illegitimate,  and  commence 
with  the  caliphate  of  Ali,  Mohammed's  nephew.  This 
sect  represents  the  climax  of  Mohammedan  fanaticism. 

While  in  Constantinople  in  1889,  during  the  month 
of  Ramazan,  I  was  permitted  one  night  to  witness  the 
horrible  relioious  celebration  of  this  sect — an  awful 
night,  never  to  be  forgotten  !  With  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  merit  and  forgiveness,  for  admittance  to 
Paradise  without  examination,  the  Persian  devotees 
appeared  in  a  procession  at  night,  clothed  in  robes  of 
white  and  armed  with  swords,  iron  chains,  and  other 
weapons  of  torture.  Long  before  the  spectacle  was 
sighted  in  the  distance,  the  streets  were  surging  with 
thousands  of  clamorous  men  and  women  of  every 
nationality  and  type,  in  eager  anticipation  of  the  death- 
foreboding  pageant  soon  to  come.  Then,  from  a  huge 
building,  with  unearthly  tumult,  and  amid  a  profusion 
of  lights,  the  devotees  burst  out  into  the  streets  in  the 
midst  of  the  man)'  spectators,  and  moved,  step  by 
step,  in  a  circle,  amid  wild,  roaring  wails  of  "  Hassan  ! 
Hussein  !   Hassan  !   Hussein-Shah  !  " 

They  inflict  ferocious  wounds  upon  their  bodies, 
some  mutilating  themselves  with  clubs  and  iron  chains, 
many  gashing  their  heads  and  throats  with  knives.  It 
is  the  most  horrible  spectacle  ever  presented  by  a 
group  of  savage  mortals,  the  body  losing  all  semblance 
of  humanity  and  assuming  the  aspect  of  a  hideous 
monster.  Hassan  and  Hussein,  murdered  twelve  cen- 
turies ago,  arise  that  night,  and  claim  the  active 
sympathy  of  their  followers,  with  fresh  blood.  Ears, 
eyes,  hands,  arms,  head,  throat,  and  abdomen  are  not 
considered  too  dear  to  be  sacrificed   in    this  demon-like 


THE    RELIGION   OF   THE   TURKS.  279 

exhibition  of  religious  frenzy.  As  the  blood  pours  out 
in  streams,  sobbing  cries  of  "  Hassan  !  "  and  "  Hus- 
sein !"  go  on  in  varying  tones  and  inflame  the  entire 
assembly. 

My  very  soul  shuddered  and  recoiled  with  horror  as 
I  gazed  upon  faces  bathed  with  the  blood  and  sweat  of 
extreme  torture.  Many  keep  step  more  and  more  vio- 
lently with  the  wild  performance,  until,  overcome  by 
exhaustion,  they  lie  gasping  for  breath,  some  never 
again  to  stagger  to  their  feet.  Some  women,  moved 
bythe  agony  of  the  scene,  fainted  away.  Who  could 
look  on  such  a  scene  unmoved  ? 

Before  this  awful  sight  we  close  our  eyes,  and  the 
hardest  heart  turns  sick  and  faint,  while  in  anguish  of 
despair  the  soul  cries  out,  "O  God,  is  Thy  light 
powerless  to  penetrate  the  midnight  that  hangs  pall- 
like over  benighted  people  of  Thine  own  creation?" 
And,  peering  through  the  darkness,  Hope  sees  the 
glimmering  of  a  star,  the  morning  star,  bespeaking 
a  larger  light,  before  whose  powerful  rays  this  awful 
niofht  of  iofnorance  shall  flee  forever. 

Beholding  this  Mohammedan  paroxysm  of  self- 
torture,  the  oft-repeated  question  echoed  in  my  ear 
with  more  emphasis  than  ever,  "  Why  art  thou  a 
Christian  ?"  and  my  soul  answered:  "  Because  God  is 
love.  His  religion  is  a  religion  of  love,  a  religion  of 
peace.  No  more  sacrifice,  for  Christ  suffered  for  all 
our  transgressions,  and  we  are  free  from  all  penalty. 
We  are  not  required  to  commemorate  His  blood  with 
ours,  but  to  follow  the  path  of  eternal  life  and  happiness 
which  He  has  opened  for  us  through  His  own  death. 
He  died  for  us  ;  we  live  for  Him." 


28o        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

As  regards  the  theoretical  and  doctrinal  aspects  of 
Islam,  a  cursory  observer  finds  much  that  is  to  be 
commended  ;  yet  the  careful  student  of  its  true  spiritual 
influence,  particularly  in  the  light  of  tlie  present  situ- 
ation in  Armenia,  finds  much  that  is  to  be  condemned. 
This  may  best  be  seen  by  a  comparison  with  the 
Christian  doctrines  and  practices.  Of  all  the  religions 
of  the  world,  Christianity  and  Mohammedanism  are 
the  only  two  missionary  and  aggressive  faiths,  for  they 
both  seek  to  make  converts  ;  but  their  methods  are  as 
diverse  as  the  characters  and  ideas  of  their  founders. 
The  one  does  it  by  the  cross  and  love,  the  other  by 
hatred  and  the  sword  ;  one  by  assimilation,  the  other 
by  subjugation.  The  theme  of  Christendom  is  mercy, 
loving-kindness,  and  charity  ;  that  of  Islam,  blind  sub- 
mission enforced  by  tyranny.  The  article  of  faith  or 
the  official  prayer  of  Islam,  which  is  used  throughout 
Turkey,  and  daily  repeated  in  the  Azhar  University,  at 
Cairo,  by  ten  thousand  Mohammedan  students  from  all 
lands,  is  the  following  : 

O  Lord  of  all  Creatures!  O  Allah!  Destroy  the  infidels  and 
polytheists,  thine  enemies,  the  enemies  of  the  religion!  O  Allah! 
Make  their  children  orphans,  and  defile  their  abodes!  Cause 
their  feet  to  slip;  give  them  and  their  families,  their  households 
and  their  women,  their  children  and  their  relations  by  marriage, 
their  brothers  and  their  friends,  their  possessions  and  their  race, 
their  wealth  and  their  lands,  as  booty  to  the  Moslems,  O  Lord  of 
all  Creatures! 

Can  a  Mussulman,  with  consistent  loyalty  to  such 
religious  principles,  tolerate  those  of  unlike  faith  ?  The 
massacre  of  Christians  or  all  others  of  unlike  faith  is 
not  only  an  obligation,  a  patriotic  duty,  but  the  only 


THE    RELIGION   OF   THE    TURKS.  28l 

mode  of  religious  revival  with  him.  The  memory  of 
devastating  wars  waged  by  Mohammed  ;  the  atrocious 
cruelties  perpetrated  by  his  followers  upon  those  of 
unlike  faith ;  the  fact  that  polygamy  exists  and  was 
sanctioned  by  the  Prophet  himself — all  conspire  to 
breed  an  antipathy  within  us  that  is  not  wholly 
unjustifiable.  The  commands  of  the  Koran  in  regard 
to  methods  of  warfare  do  not  warrant  any  admonitions 
deprecating  cruelty  in  any  form  ;  in  fact,  with  the 
watchword,  "  The  sword  is  the  key  to  heaven  and 
hell,"  its  soldiers  have  ever  been  the  concrete  expres- 
sion of  fiendish  brutality. 

From  the  time  of  Mohammed's  triumphant  march 
from  Medina  to  Mecca,  at  the  head  of  an  army  ten 
thousand  strong,  through  the  years  when  the  "sand 
of  the  desert,  converted  into  explosive  powder,  blazed 
heaven-high  from  Delhi  to  Granada,"  to  this  very  day, 
when  his  Turkish  devotees,  with  uplifted  scimitar, 
transform  the  homes  of  peaceable  Christians,  from 
the  Euphrates  to  the  Bosphorus,  into  a  wilderness  of 
blood  and  fire,  the  career  of  Islam  has  been  one  con- 
tinuous and  desolating  tidal  wave  of  bloodshed,  out- 
rage, and  rapine  in  the  name  of  Allah  and  the 
Prophet. 

True,  it  cannot  be  said  that  Christendom  has  been 
more  humane  in  her  warfare  and  religious  persecutions 
in  the  past  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
Christendom  of  to-day  is  not  the  Christendom  of  the. 
past,  while  the  Islamism  of  to-day  is  the  Islamism  of 
the  past.  The  evolution  of  centuries  has  widened 
the  religious  as  well  as  the  intellectual  horizon  of 
Christians   into  clearer  and   more   charitable   ideas  of 


282        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

the  true  interpretation  of  Christ's  teachin<^s  of  peace 
and  universal  brotherhood.  Christians  have  reformed, 
for  the  principles  of  their  religion  ever  teach  them  to 
reform;  while  the  Moslems  have  not,  and,  in  truth, 
they  cannot  reform,  for  the  principles  of  their  religion 
forbid  reformation. 

That  the  Turks,  like  all  Mussulmans,  are  sincerely 
devout  in  making  their  religion  an  essential  part  of 
their  daily  life  cannot  be  refuted,  yet  it  appears  that 
this  very-overdevotion  to  a  deluded  and  tyrannical 
faith  makes  them  the  most  relentless  of  religious 
persecutors.  But  one  need  not  go  to  the  Dark  Ages 
of  the  past  to  hiM\  a  parallel  for  tlie  incorrigible 
Moslem  Turk's  astounding  inhumanity,  I  suggest 
the  present  deplorable  condition  of  my  native  land, 
Armenia,  where  all  the  sacred  relations  of  father, 
mother,  wife,  and  child  are  trampled  beneath  his  brutal 
feet,  and  one  hundred  thousand  of  m\'  countrymen  have 
suffered  the  most  agonizing  deaths  by  fire  and  sword. 
Nor  is  the  Armenian  crisis  the  only  record  of  the 
Turk's  religious  fanaticism  in  the  present  century. 
In  1822  Greek  Christians,  to  the  number  of  fifty  thou- 
sand, were  put  to  the  sword  in  the  island  of  Scio. 
In  1850  Nestorians  were  butchered  with  such  barbarity 
that  the  mountains  and  plains  were  covered  with  "the 
scattered  bones,  bleached  skulls,  long  locks  of  hair 
plucked  from  the  women's  heads,  and  torn  portions  of 
the  garments  they  had  worn."'-'  In  i860  Syrian  Chris- 
tians were  killed,  and  Lebanon  and  Damascus  "ran 
with  human  gore,  in  which  men   waded  ankle  d^ep  "  ;  f 

*  See  Layard's  "  Nineveh." 

f  See  Van  Lennep's  "  Bible  Lands  ;  Their  Modern  Customs  and  Manners." 


THE    RELIGION    OF   THE    TURKS.  283 

and  twenty-one  years  ago  fifteen  thousand   Bulgarians 
were  massacred  in  cold  blood  within  a  few  days. 

As  we  pursue  the  career  of  such  a  heartless  religion, 
so  infernally  atrocious  in  theory  and  practice,  our 
pained  hearts  cannot  help  but  exclaim,  "  How  long» 
O  Lord,  how  long!"  May  we  not  confidently  cherish 
the  hope  that  the  shining  cross  of  the  humble  Nazarene, 
that  has  conqueringly  risen  above  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness and  tyranny,  shall  sooner  or  later,  as  its  final 
achievement,  triumph  over  the  blood-red  crescent  of 
Mohammed  ? 


THE  TURKISH  GOVERNMENT. 


*'The  Sultan's  Empire  is  being  rapidly  brought  to  destruction; 
corruption  has  reached  a  pitch  that  it  has  never  before  attained. 
The  service  of  the  state  is  starved  while  untold  millions  are 
being  poured  into  the  palaces;  and  the  provinces  are  being  ruined 
by  the  uncontrolled  exactions  of  the  governors,  who  purchase 
their  appointments  at  the  palaces;  and  nothing  can  save  the 
country  but  a  complete  change  of  system." — Midhat  Pasha, 
ex-Prime  Minister  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Ln^E  most  political  institutions,  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment of  to-day  has  been  the  product  of  a  gradual 
development ;  arrested  and  contorted  as  it  may  have 
been  at  certain  eras  of  its  growth,  I  n  order  that  we  may 
gain  even  a  superficial  idea  of  the  government  of  Turkey, 
it  will  be  wise  for  us  to  go  back  some  centuries  and 
imagine  the  condition  of  those  days  when  it  first  exer- 
cised its  simplest  functions.  We  find  the  Turks  in  the 
midst  of  a  mighty  career  of  conquest.  The  people,  of 
Asia  Minor  and  of  eastern  Europe  are  gradually  being 
forced  to  acknowledge  the  sovereignty  of  advancing 
armies,  whose  right  there  is  little  heart  or  means  to 
contest.  To  attaiji  such  a  sovereignty,  and  to  retain  it, 
are  two  different  problems,  of  which  the  latter  is  by  far 
the  more  complex  and  the  less  likely  to  be  solved  ; 
especially  when  the  conquered  are  comprised  of  het- 
erogeneous nationalities,  with  ideas  entirely  different  in 
matterspertaining  to  religion  and  the  state.    This  prob- 

284 


THE   TURKISH   GOVERNMENT.  285 

lem  the  great  Alexander  attempted  on  a  much  larger 
scale,  and  failed — because  he  was  mortal ;  and  this  prob- 
lem the  conquering  Turks  were  compelled  to  face,  and 
they  solved  it — in  their  way. 

The  government  of  this  time  was  necessarily  nomadic 
and,  therefore,  military  in  its  nature.  Accordingly,  it 
was  imperative  to  its  strength  and  effectiveness  that 
power  should  be  centralized  as  much  as  possible,  and 
this  was  accomplished  by  the  inception  of  a  sort  of 
feudal  system.  Under  this  system  the  titles  of  the 
territory,  as  fast  as  it  was  conquered,  were  distributed 
among  the  most  worthy  of  the  soldiers,  who,  in  turn, 
were  placed  under  obligation  to  furnish  a  certain  quota 
of  armed  men  for  the  service  of  the  state.  It  is  almost 
needless  to  add  that  a  grant  of  this  kind  was  esteemed 
a  prize  and  was  the  effective  means  of  stimulating 
many  to  noble  deeds  and  valiant  sacrifice. 

The  smallest  variety  of  fief  or  grant  was  the  iimar, 
comprising  from  three  hundred  to  five  hundred  acres. 
In  times  of  war  the  "cavalier,"  or  owner  of  a  Itmar, 
was  bound  to  supply  one  armed  horseman  for  every 
three  thousand  aspres  of  its  revenue.  Grants  of  five 
hundred  acres  and  upward  were  called  ziamets,  and 
the  very  largest  fief  was  the  beylik. 

That  this  system  might  be  the  more  effectual,  these 
lands  were  assigned  to  districts,  each  containing  a  certain 
number  of  grants.  Over  such  a  district  was  appointed 
an  ofificer  with  the  dignified  insignia  of  a  horse's  tail. 
Yet  the  office  of  Sa7idjak-Bey  was  no  mean  one,  and 
he  had  some  thousands  of  cavalry  placed  at  his  com- 
mand. Though  unaccompanied  by  many  of  the  civi- 
lized results  with  which  the  feudal  system  was  followed 


286        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

in  Other  portions  of  Europe,  this  same  system  was 
admirably  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  the  times.  It 
afforded  the  head  of  the  nation  ample  means  for 
quelling-  insurrections,  and,  indeed,  insured  a  loyalty 
such  as  no  other  plan  we  are  able  to  conceive  of  could. 

We  have  been  considering  the  government  simply 
in  its  policy,  with  no  regard  to  its  composition  and 
inner  principles;  and,  in  approaching  this  latter  phase, 
we  will  anticipate,  from  what  has  been  said,  that 
its  functions  were  largely  discharged  by  men  of 
military  ability.  Indeed,  should  we  peruse  the  Insti- 
tutes of  Mohammed  II.,  we  should  find  the  government 
of  those  days  explained  in  a  military  metaphor — that 
of  a  tent  and  the  four  columns  which  were  its  support. 
And  I  think  it  best,  because  of  the  quaint  simplicity  of 
the  figure,  to  adopt  it  in  this  short  sketch,  which  is 
likely  enough  to  suffer  for  want  of  perspicuity.  This 
figure  may  be  made  to  "stand  on  all  fours"  without  in 
the  least  destroying  its  usefulness. 

The  first  pillar,  then,  supporting  the  fabric  of  the 
state,  was  represented  by  the  viziers,  or  "bearers  of 
burdens."  At  the  time  of  Mohammed  II.  these  were 
four  in  number.  The  Grand  Vizier,  who  was  a  sort  of 
minister  of  state  and  an  executive  ofificer,  was,  next  to 
the  Sultan,  the  highest  personage  in  the  empire.  To  him 
was  intrusted  the  imperial  seal,  and  his  was  the  privi- 
lege of  presiding  over  the  "Divan,"  or  Council  of  the 
Realm,  in  the  absence  of  the  Sultan.  Perhaps  the 
highest  function  he  enjoyed  was  the  convoking  of  this 
council  in  his  own  tent  whenever  he  deemed  it  neces- 
sary. The  second  pillar  was  represented  by  two  mili- 
tary judges  called  cadiaskers,  who,  with  their  subordi- 


288        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

nates,  constituted  the  legal  order  of  the  empire.  The 
authority  of  one  was  confined  to  Europe,  that  of  the 
other  to  Asia.  Immediately  beneath  them  in  rank  were 
the  tutor  to  the  royal  princes  and  officers  called  nmfte. 
The  duty  of  these  imifte  was  to  expound  the  sacred 
law,  and  their  persons  were  considered  so  sacred  that 
not  even  the  Sultan  was  permitted  to  put  them  to 
death.  Yet  this  restriction  was  of  no  value,  as  the 
Sultan  could  depose  them  from  their  positions  at  his 
pleasure,  and  then  execute  them  as  he  could  any  other 
subject.  In  this  legal  order  was  also  included  the  Judge 
of  Constantinople,  whose  office  was  created  somewhat 
later  than  the  others  we  have  mentioned.  The  third 
pillar,  a  golden  one,  yet  strong  and  indispensable, 
was  the  deftarders,  officers  of  the  exchequer ;  and 
last  came  the  secretaries  of  state,  or  nischaiidycs,  with 
whom  the  figure  is  complete. 

The  "Sublime  Porte,"  which  has  long  designated  to 
the  world  the  Turkish  government,  is  an  expression 
whose  origin  is  also  intimately  connected  with  the  idea 
of  the  tent  from  whose  lofty  gate,  or,  in  Italian,  La 
Porta  Sublima,  the  rulers  of  old  gave  forth  their 
decrees.  Of  course,  at  the  head  of  all  the  political  frame- 
work we  have  delineated,  reigned  supreme  that  arbi- 
trary monarch,  the  Sultan. 

We  have  said  that  the  Turkish  government  is  a 
growth.  Perhaps  we  should  have  stated  it  more  accu- 
rately had  we  said  that  it  is  a  modification,  for,  with 
some  few  changes  and  complications,  the  government 
of  to-day  is  in  principle  the  same  as  that  of  three  or 
four  centuries  ago  ;  so  that,  understanding  the  latter,  it 
will  be  comparatively  easy  correctly  to  comprehend  the 


THE  TURKISH   GOVERNMENT.  289 

present  system.  And  first,  there  has  been  some  change 
in  the  pohtical  divisions  of  the  empire.  In  the  six- 
teenth century  the  sanjaks,  or  groups  of  grants,  which 
we  have  described,  were  made  into  still  larger  districts, 
called  eiatels.  The  tendency  toward  centralization, 
which  was  before  a  desirable  thing,  soon  became  an  ob- 
stacle to  effective  administration,  and  the  central  gov- 
ernment was  not  long  in  discovering  that  farther  divi- 
sion of  labor  was  eminently  necessary.  Various 
alterations  were  made  in  the  system  at  different  times, 
but  with  little  result  until  1864,  when  these  eiatels  be- 
came separate  governmental" centers,  designated  by  a 
new  name,  vilayet.  The  vilayet  is  to-day  what  might 
be  called  the  political  unit  of  the  empire,  and  possesses 
some  degree  of  independence,  although  directly  tribu- 
tary to  the  laws  of  the  whole  country.  The  head  offi- 
cers are  the  vali  and  his  assistant  vmari^i,  both 
appointed  by  the  Sultan,  to  whom  they  are  directly  re- 
sponsible. Of  course,  these  dignitaries  are  aided  by 
their  secretaries,  who  direct  the  work  of  the  several  de- 
partments over  which  they  are  placed  by  imperial  nom- 
ination. 

The  governors  of  the  sanjaks,  the  subdivisions  of 
the  vilayets,  although  appointed  by  the  Sultan,  are  con- 
sidered as  representatives  of  the  vali,  from  whom  they 
receive  their  instructions.  The  next  subdivision  is 
the  kaza,  or  district,  whose  governor  is  in  turn  ac- 
countable to  the  head  officer  of  the  sanjak.  Again, 
the  kaza  is  divided  into  nakiehs,  or  subdistricts,  com- 
prising houses  to  the  number  of  two  hundred.  The 
inhabitants  of  these  nakiehs  have  the  usual  privilege 
of  electing  their  own  vmdir  and  miiavin,  subject,  how- 


290        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

ever,  to  the  confirmation  of  the  vali  of  the  district. 
The  election  is  not  free  from  religious  considerations, 
and  the  religious  complexion  of  the  majority  determines 
the  fate  of  the  nominee.  The  very  last  division,  the 
minimum  visible,  as  it  might  appropriately  be  called, 
is  that  presided  over  by  the  head  man  of  single 
villages,  the  codja  bashi,  or  .  kchyah,  as  he  is  vari- 
ousl)'  called.  His  powers  are  very  limited,  and  he  is 
almost  entirely  an  instrument  of  the  vuidir.  Yet  it  is 
a  rule  of  local  self-government  that  the  people  must 
hand  their  taxes  over  to  a  representative  from  their 
own  number  rather  than  to  a  collector  directly  from  the 
Sublime  Porte.  In  all  these  instances  the  directing 
officer  is  aided  in  his  administration  by  appropriate  aids 
and  by  an  Administrative  Council,  a  permanent  organi- 
zation. We  may  the  better  comprehend  the  position  of 
all  these  officers  if,  on  the  basis  of  the  feudal  system, 
we  conceive  of  each  as  holding  a  "fief  of  responsibil- 
ity," for  which  he  is  directly  accountable  to  the  one  next 
higher  in  rank. 

The  vali  has  direct  control  over  sub-governors  and 
all  the  employees  of  the  vilayet.  Invested  with  such 
a  power,  should  his  tendencies  be  for  corruption  and 
evil,  as  they  generally  are,  he  has  the  best  opportunity 
and  the  most  unlimited  power  to  gratify  them,  for  he 
has  the  entire  official  body  of  the  vilayet  under  his 
control ;  and  if  a  sub-governor  has  the  courage  to  op- 
pose him,  it  is  so  much  the  worse  for  the  sub-governor. 
Nor  is  this  the  entire  extent  of  the  valis  jurisdiction 
and  influence.  He  has  the  general  oversight  and  man- 
agement of  all  the  taxes  and  revenues,  and  is  also  the 
commander  of  the  military  forces  of  the  vilayet.     And 


f?^f! 


292        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

with  such  unlimited-  authority,  he   can   generally  influ- 
ence the  courts  of  justice  as  he  chooses. 

The  supreme  head  of  the  empire,  the  Sultan,  who 
moves  the  machinery  of  the  administration  as  the  vice 
regent  of  God  upon  earth  and  as  the  Caliph,  or  suc- 
cessor of  Mohammed,  has  an  authority  unknown  else- 
where in  the  world.  To  recount  his  powers  would  be 
a  hopeless  task.  He  is  omnipotent,  and  all  things  pro- 
ceed from  and  revert  directly  or  indirectly  to  his  sover- 
eign will.  His  word  is  absolute  for  life  or  death.  A 
few  restraints  have  been  forced  upon  him  from  time  to 
time,  but  even  these  are  more  fictitious  than  real.  The 
people  at  large  have  no  choice  as  to  their  ruler,  for  the 
office  is  hereditary,  and  the  succession  belongs  to  the 
oldest  male  relative,  not  to  the  eldest  son,  as  might 
naturally  be  presumed.  The  executive  and  legislative 
authority,  under  the  supreme  direction  of  the  Sultan, 
is  exercised  by  two  dignitaries,  the  Grand  Vizier,  who 
is  the  head  of  the  temporal  government,  and  the  Sheik- 
ul-Islam,  the  head  of  the  church. 

The  Grand  Vizier,  one  of  the  oldest  pillars  of  state, 
has  lost  none  of  his  power,  and  is  accountable  to  no 
one  save  the  Sultan,  by  whom  he  is  appointed  and  in 
whose  name  he  acts.  It  is  still  his  privilege  to  preside 
at  the  Medjliss-i-Hass,  or  Privy  Council,  in  the  Sultan's 
absence,  and  wherever  he  is  there  is  the  Sublime  Porte. 
We  shall  understand  somewhat  his  significance  if  we 
remember  that  it  is  he  who  nominates  to  almost  all  the 
important  offices.  To  this  function  is  added  that  of 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  which,  however,  he  is  not 
obliged  to  exercise  in  person.  The  salary  of  the  Grand 
Vizier  amounts  to  about  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year. 


THE   TURKISH   GOVERNMENT.  293 

The  different  departments  of  Medjliss-i-Hass,  con- 
stituting what  is  known  as  the  Sublime  Porte,  consists 
of  the  following  ministers:  i,  the  Grand  Vizier;  2, 
the  Sheik-ul-Islam  ;  3,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior; 
4,  the  Minister  of  War  ;  5,  the  Minister  of  Evkaf,  or 
Worship ;  6,  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  ;  7, 
the  Minister  of  Public  Works;  8,  the  President  of  the 
Council  of  State  ;  g,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs; 
10,  the  Minister  of  Finance;  11,  the  Minister  of 
Marine;  12,  the  Minister  of  Justice  ;  13,  the  Minister  of 
the  Civil  List.  This  Medjliss-i-Hass  has  weekly  meet- 
ings, when  matters  of  public  moment  are  presented 
and  considered.  It  also  serves  as  a  sort  of  advisory 
Cabinet. 

It  was  in  1453  that  the  unique  office  of  Sheik-ul-Islam 
was  created.  No  other  nation  employs  a  similar 
functionary,  because  the  law^s  of  no  other  nation  are  in 
such  a  peculiar  manner  related  to  the  sacred  waitings. 
While  not  really  a  spiritual  head,  it  becomes  one  of 
his  duties  to  interpret  the  Koran  as  applied  to  matters 
of  a  legal  character,  and  to  preside  over  Ulema,  a  body 
comprising  the  clergy  and  chief  functionaries  of  the 
law.  In  rank  this  dignitary  is  not  below  the  Grand 
Vizier,  and  he  likewise  is  appointed  by  the  Sultan  with 
the  nominal  concurrence  of  the  Ulema,  receiving  the 
same  salary  as  the  former  officer.  The  power  of  the 
Sheik-ul-Islam  is  manifold.  Besides  acting  as  counsel 
to  the  Sultan,  he  is  at  the  head  of  all  the  law  courts  of 
the  empire,  and  his  sanction,  or  fetva,  is  necessary  to 
render  a  verdict  valid.  Even  the  Sultan's  decrees  are 
subject  to  his  sanction  ;  yet  this  is  merely  a  matter  of 
form,  for,  should   a  fetva   be   refused    him,  the    Sultan 


294        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

could  use — or  abuse — his  appointing  power,  and  gain 
the  sanction  desired  from  a  more  docile  servant. 

So  far  as  my  observation  has  extended,  I  have  found 
that  people  in  general  have  very  erroneous  ideas 
regarding  the  administration  of  justice  in  Turkey.  I 
think  that  a  personal  acquaintance  with  Turkish  courts 
would  clearly  show  that  if  anything  pertaining  to  the 
Turkish  government  is  worthy  of  sweeping  denuncia- 
tion, it  surely  is  the  so-called  Department  of  Justice. 
There  is  really  no  semblance  of  justice  in  Turkish 
courts  in  general. 

The  old-time  courts  of  the  cadis,  like  backwoods 
courts  of  America,  had  substitnted  their  own  ideas  of 
justice  for  established  law.  They  would,  for  instance, 
render  judgment  against  the  defendant  and  send  him 
to  jail  for  not  paying  promptly,  and  send  the  plaintiff 
there,  too,  for  making  a  fuss  about  so  small  a  matter, 
while  the  witness  would  get  a  few  days  behind  the 
bars  for  not  minding  his  own  business.  The  modern 
Turkish  courts,  however,  were  forced  to  adopt  a  system 
of  laws  based  upon  the  Code  Napoleon.  At  the  time 
it  was  thought  a  decided  improvement ;  but  the  Moslem 
system  of  laws  thus  coming  into  a  close  relation  with 
the  European  system,  as  represented  by  the  Code 
Napoleon,  has  resulted  in  nothing  more  than  that  the 
Turk  has  put  on  the  robes  of  civilized  nations,  only  to 
cover  his  barbaric  inner  nature. 

It  is  not  new  laws  that  are  most  needed  in  Turkey. 
The  existing  laws,  in  all  the  departments  of  administra- 
tion, are  good  enough  for  the  Turks  ;  but  what  is  vitally 
indispensable  to  good  government  is  the  honest  appli- 
cation of  the-existing  laws. 


A   TURKISH    JUDGE. 


296        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

In  every  vilayet,  as  well  as  in  every  liva  (or  sanjak) 
and  caza,  we  find  two  different  courts  of  justice.  One 
is  the  Superior  Court,  or  "  Court  Sheri,"  whose  head — 
always  a  Mussulman — is  appointed  by  the  Sultan.  The 
Courts  Sheri  correspond  somewhat  to  American  Courts 
of  Equity,  and  they  expound  the  sacred  law  of  the 
Koran,  appealing  to  it  for  a  decision  in  those  complexi- 
ties where  the  law  of  the  count/y  is  inadequate.  Cases 
relating  to  real  property  fall  rightly  under  their  juris- 
diction. The  judgments  of  these  courts  are  ex- 
amined and  amended  by  a  mollah  residing  at  the 
governing  centers.  The  High  Court  of  Appeals  is 
divided  into  two  chambers,  one  for  Asia  and  one  for 
Europe,  and  at  the  heads  of  these  we  recognize  the 
cadiaskers,  or  the  military  judges  who  constitute  the 
second  pillar  of  state  in  our  figure  of  the  royal  tent. 
Wliile  these  Courts  Sheri  are  not  the  only  courts  in 
Turkey,  yet  the  Koran  is  the  only  law  in  the  legislation 
of  the  country,  and  it  is  appealed  to  as  absolute  au- 
thority in  all  instances.  Not  only  is  this  true,  but 
there  is  another  set  of  courts,  which,  although  inferior 
in  rank,  are  wide  enough  in  their  jurisdiction,  and 
vested  with  enough  of  power,  to  be  described  some- 
what in  detail.  While  in  theory  to  the  people  prop- 
erly belongs  the  privilege  of  electing  judges  to  these 
common  courts,  yet  none  but  Mussulmans  are  held 
eligible  to  the  office.  Besides  a  jurisdiction  over 
criminal  cases,  these  tribunals  try  cases  between  the 
two  orreat  relipfious  sects — between  Mussulman  and 
Christian.  Like  the  Sheri,  these  courts  are  located  at 
each  vilayet,  liva,  and  caza,  each  considering  appeals 
from   the  next  lower  in  rank.     The    tribunal    at    the 


THE   TURKISH    GOVERNMENT.  297 

vilayet  tries  the  higher  cases,  involving  such  sentences 
as  capital  punishment  and  exile  ;  but  sentences  of 
death  are  subject  to  the  imperial  sanction.  At  the 
vilayet  is  also  a  Court  of  Appeals,  whose  members  come 
from  the  inferior  courts,  and  who  are  supposed  to  be 
elected  by  the  inhabitants,  although  in  practice  their 
choice  has  little  influence. 

The  lesser  courts  of  the  sub-districts — the  livas  and 
cazas — try  the  less  important  suits.  Lowest,  and  of 
least  rank  of  all,  are  the.  minor  justices  of  the  peace, 
found  at  each  village,  whose  jurisdiction  is  confined  to 
cases  the  most  petty.  At  the  capital  is  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Justice,  which  considers  appeals  from  all  over 
the  empire,  even  including  the  Tribunal  of  Commerce, 
and  whose  decision  is  final,  except  in  sentence  of  death, 
which  can  always  be  appealed  to  him  on  whose  special 
will  rest  the  lives  of  all  his  subjects.  "  In  acknowledg- 
ment," says  Creasy,  "of  his  absolute  power  of  life  and 
death,  the  title  of  Hunkiar,  the  '  Manslayer,'  is  the  one 
most  commonly  used  by  the  subjects  of  the  Sultan  in 
speaking  of  their  sovereign." 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  administration  of 
justice  in  Turkey,  it  is  patent  to  all  that  here,  at  least,  is 
a  system  good  enough  in  theory,  but  purely  despotic  in 
practice,  whether  it  be  the  worst  conceivable  or  no. 
And  I  think  it  may  be  asserted  with  truth  that,  in 
spite  of  the  many  so-called  reforms,  justice  is  hardly 
ever  meted  out  with  any  degree  of  equity.  As  has 
been  indicated,  the  laws  of  the  land  are  not  based 
strictly  upon  the  Code  Napoleon,  but  upon  the  Koran, 
and  these  institutes  are  made  to  conform  to  it.  Under 
such  a  legal  system  a  Christian  has  no  rights  whatever. 


298  THE   TURK   AND    THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

He  can  obtain  no  justice,  and   has  no  redress   against 
wrongs  that  are  done  him,  for  even  his  testimony  is  not 
available  in  Turkish  courts  of  law.     As  has  been  stated, 
it  is  always  the  Moslem  who  sits  on  the  bench  ;  and  as 
he,  under  the  precepts  of  Moslem  law,  will   not  accept 
the  evidence  of  a  Christian  against  a  fellow-Moslem, 
even  though  accused  of  the  foulest   crimes,  how  can  a 
Christian  hope  for  justice?     It  is  absurd,  let  me  repeat, 
to  point  out    to  the  decrees  of  the   Hatti-Humayoum 
placing  the  Christian  witness  on  equality  with  those  of 
the  Mohammedans,  for  these  decrees  were   never  fully 
executed,  and,  in  fact,  they  will  always  remain  a   dead 
letter  as  long  as  the  Turk  remains  a  Mohammedan.      I 
can    speak  from   personal  and    intimate  acquaintance 
with  Turkish  courts  of  "justice."     There  are  scarcely 
any  of  them  that  would  not  adhere  to  the  old   Moslem 
law   rather  than   the  Code    Napoleon,  when   the   con- 
troversy  is   based  on   an    issue    as    affecting  Moham- 
medans and  Christians.     When,  however,  the  conten- 
tion is  of  a  Moslem  against  a   Moslem,  or  a   Christian 
against   a   Christian,  then,  as   a   rule,  nothing   but   the 
largest    bakshish,    or    bribe,    can  give    weight    to    the 
balance  of  Turkish  justice. 

I  have  dwelt,  in  the  preceding  pages  of  this  chapter, 
on  the  administrative  phases  of  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment, and  I  wish  to  add  a  cursory  outline  of  the  area, 
population,  and  military  system  of  the  Ottoman 
government,  and  also  of  agriculture  and  taxation. 

The  total  area  of  the  immediate  possessions  of  Tur- 
key, not  including  the  States  nominally  subject,  is  esti- 
mated at  1,147,578  square  miles,  and  its  total  population 


THE   TURKISH    GOVERNMENT.  299 

at  about  27,688,000.  Of  this  number,  in  Asia  it  has 
687,640  square  miles,  with  a  population  of  21,608,000; 
in  Africa,  398,738  miles,  and  a  population  of  1,300,000; 
and  in  Europe,  61,200  miles,  and  a  population  of 
4,780,000. 

Nominal  possessions  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  includ- 
ing the  Balkan  States,  Egypt,  and  Samos,  have  a  total 
area  of  461,662  square  miles,  with  a  total  population  of 
about  1 1,542,131. 

THE    ARMY    AND    NAVY. 

The  power  of  the  Turkish  army  is  great,  by  reason  of 
its  fanaticism  and  its  being  organized  by  German  offi- 
cers. In  its  present  organization  it  is  divided  into 
three  main  divisions,  namely  :  i,  the  niza?n,  or  the 
regular  army  ;  2,  the  I'ddif,  or  the  army  of  reserve  ; 
and,  3,  the  mu7tiajiz,  or  the  territorial  army.  All 
Mohammedans  over  twenty  years  of  age  are  liable  to 
military  service,  and  this  liability  continues  for  twenty 
years — six  years  in  the  regular  army,  eight  years  in  the 
reserve  army,  and  six  years  in  the  territorial  army. 
All  the  military  forces  of  the  Turkish  government  are 
distributed  in  army  corps,  with  seven  headquarters  in 
principal  centers  of  the  empire.  The  effective  com- 
batant service  of  the  Turkish  army,  according  to  the 
"  Statesman's  Year  Book,"  is  700,620  men.  Of  this,  the 
infantry  has  648  battalions,  with  583,200  men  ;  the  cav- 
alry, 202  squadrons,  with  53,300  men  ;  the  artillery, 
1356  guns,  with  54,720  men  ;  and  the  engineers  have  39 
companies,  with  7400  men. 

The  Turkish  navy  is  in  a  sadly  neglected  condition. 
Only  three  ships  can  now  be  counted  of  any  fighting 


300        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

value,  while  the  rest  of  the  Turkish  ships  are  of 
no  worth  whatever.  The  Ottoman  naval  organiza- 
tion is  practically  the  same  as  that  of  the  land  forces. 
The  time  of  service  in  the  navy  is  twelve  years — five  in 
active  service,  three  in  the  reserve,  and  four  in  the 
r^dify  or  army  of  reserve. 

Any  candid,  impartial  observer  of  the  Turkish 
Government  will'hnd  that  the  official  corruption  in  all 
the  departments  of  administration  has  kept  out  of  gear 
its  political  machinery.  So  incurably  dishonest  is  the 
whole  system  that  nothing  can  be  done  without  a  bribe. 
It  is  seldom  that  men  of  requisite  qualifications  are  in- 
trusted with  high  governmental  and  municipal  offices  ; 
but  the  person  who  secures  an  appointment  is  the  one 
who  has  the  skill  to  acquire  influence  in  the  palace  at 
Constantinople.  If  there  is  anything  in  the  United 
States  that  somewhat  resembles  the  Turkish  govern- 
ment it  is  the  New  York  Tammany  Hall  at  its  worst. 
True,  there  have  been  a  few  honorable  and  hiofh-minded 
officials,  who  conducted  the  affairs  of  the  state  with 
some  measure  of  efficiency  ;  but  the  general  demoraliza- 
tion, with  the  basest  forms  of  venality  on  one  hand  and 
cruelty  and  misgoverninent  on  the  other,  has  become 
so  widely  spread  that  it  would  be  really  difficult  to 
overestimate  the  utter  rottenness  of  many  branches  of 
the  administration. 

As  in  all  other  governments,  and  perhaps  to  a 
greater  degree,  there  is  to  be  found  much  of  dross  and 
much  that  cannot  be  looked  upon  with  complacency  by 
right-minded  men.  Much  of  excellent  theory  is  trans- 
formed into  most  corrupt  practice.  Good  government 
can  come  only  through  good  administration.     True,  a 


A  MODERN  TURKISH  GENERAL. 


302        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

bad  law  may  seriously  hamper  the  best  administration, 
yet  a  good  law  is  of  no  value  whatever  unless  well  ad- 
ministered. A  thorough  cleansing  of  the  administra- 
tion, with  many  important  modifications  of  abusable 
privileges,  would  do  much  for  civilization  in  Turkey. 

AGRICULTURE     AND     TAXATION. 

At  the  conquest  of  the  country  now  known  as 
Turkey  four  main  dispositions  were  made  of  the 
land,  namely:  first,  mii'i,  or  Crown  lands  ;  second, 
vacoiif,  or  pious  foundations  ;  third,  mulikaneh,  or 
Crown  grants  ;  and,  fourth,  nmek,  or  freehold  prop- 
erty. The  first  portion,  the  Crown  lands,  con- 
stituted the  private  property  of  the  empire  ;  the 
second  was  set  aside  as  the  exclusive  property  of  the 
Church ;  the  third  division  of  landed  property  was 
granted  to  the  old  feudal  soldiers  in  recompense  for 
military  service ;  while  the  last  tenure,  the  freehold 
property,  does  not  exist  to  a  great  extent.  By  con- 
forming to  certain  conditions  imposed  by  the  govern- 
ment, the  unoccupied  or  waste  lands  included  under 
the  first  division  may  become  private  property.  Any- 
one may  thus  obtain  a  title  to  a  farm  by  appropriating 
as  many  acres  as  he  can  well  cultivate,  providing  he 
pays  the  specified  tax  for  a  period  of  twenty  years. 
As  a  result  of  this  opportunity  afforded  by  the  gov- 
ernment, many  villages,  composed  almost  wholly  of 
these  minor  farmers,  have  gradually  come  into  being. 
It  was  not  until  the  year  1867  that  subject  peoples 
were  granted  the  right  of  holding  real  property  in 
their   own    name.       To-day    numbers    of    large    farms 


THE   TURKISH    GOVERNMENT.  303 

represent  investments  of  foreign  capital,  and  almost 
all  the  farms  of  the  empire  have  non-resident  owners. 

The  transfer  of  title  to  land  is  a  simple  matter. 
Both  parties  to  a  transfer  proceed  to  the  government 
house  of  a  district,  and  there,  in  the  presence  of  wit- 
nesses, make  the  sale  valid.  The  purchaser  pays  at 
once  the  price  agreed  and  receives  a  certificate  which 
entitles  him  to  private  ownership ;  later  he  obtains 
from  the  capital  the  title-deed  to  his  property. 

But  while  the  transfer  of  land  is  apparently  so 
simple,  yet  many  complexities  attend  its  formalities 
in  the  execution  of  property  titles,  and  these  very 
complexities  have  been  deliberately  instituted  by  the 
Turkish  government  for  the  express  purpose  of  plun- 
dering the  Christian  property-owners. 

The  vacouf,  or  Church  lands,  are  not  exempt  from 
being  a  source  of  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  As  has 
been  briefly  stated,  the  vacouf  is  a  parcel  of  land  with 
or  without  buildings  on  it ;  its  doininiuvi  plenum  does 
not  belong  to  the  occupant,  but  he  simply  has  the  use 
of  it.  The  fact  that  this  form  of  tenure  insures  free- 
dom from  many  oppressive  measures  of  the  govern- 
ment and  fraudulent  tendencies  of  grasping  ofificials 
induces  a  great  many  people  to  make  over  their 
property  to  pious  institutions,  such  as  a  mosque,  with 
the  condition  of  using  the  property  during  their  life- 
time. In  time  this  method  became  so  firmly  estab- 
lished that  to-day  the  whole  of  Constantinople  is 
vacouf  property.  Reclus  estimates  that  one-third  of 
the  total  amount  of  property  in  European  Turkey  is 
vacouf  property. 

As   to   how   laws  and   regulations    have   been   alto- 


304        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

gether  disregarded  by  the  Turkisli  government;  and 
people  have  been  driven  from  tlieir  homes,  and  their 
property  seized  by  the  officials  of  the  state,  I  will  not 
here  attempt  to  speak.  It  would,  indeed,  open  a  new 
chapter  of  endless  wrongs. 

We  will  now  consider  the  mode  of  managing  a  large 
cultivated  estate.  The  landed  proprietor  himself  does 
not  usually  attend  to  the  farm,  but  employs  an  agent, 
generally  a  native,  to  personally  superintend  the  busi- 
ness ;  and  thus  the  owner  is  often  the  victim  of  dis- 
honesty on  the  part  of  his  agent,  who  has  not  much 
fear  of  discovery.  Besides  the  agent  there  are  numer- 
ous farm  laborers,  who  are  sometimes  paid  in  stipu- 
lated wages  and  sometimes  by  a  share  in  the  year's 
produce.  The  superintendent  has  also  his  "staff"  of 
cowherds,  oxherds,  and  similar  necessary  helpers.  By 
this  method,  in  force  on  the  bcylik,  or  *'  home  farm,"  as 
it  is  called,  the  profits  above  wages  and  other  expenses 
revert  directly  to  the  landed  proprietor.  But  the 
bcylik  does  not  include  all  of  the  estate,  for  a  large 
part  of  it  is  let  out  to  tenants  who  usually  work  on  the 
metayer  system — a  system  so  universally  in  vogue 
that  it  will  be  well  to  explain  it. 

The  tenant  is  usually  a  Christian.  Besides  a  small 
plot  for  his  own  private  use,  he  is  furnished  by  his 
landlord  with  seed,  and  sometimes  with  a  house  and 
barn.  At  the  end  of  the  year  each  receives  half  of 
of  what  produce  remains  after  paying  the  usual  "tithe," 
or  tax.  It  cannot  be  said  that  this  system  is  one  of 
absolute  equity,  for  if  there  is  any  loss  to  be  borne,  it 
largely  falls  upon  the  landlord.  If  the  crops  are  poor, 
it  is  he  who  suffers    most ;  and    his  tenant  is  usually 


THE   TURKISH    GOVERNMENT.  305 

indebted  to  him  ;  for  when  compelled  to  borrow,  the 
tenant  borrows  from  his  landlord  at  twelve  per  cent, 
rather  than  from  professional  money-lenders,  whose 
rate  is  two  or  three  times  higher.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  tenant's  lot  is  not  so  happy  as  mJght  be  thought 
on  consitU^ing  his  absolute  freedom  from  risk.  It  is 
just  this  lack  of  responsibility  which,  by  thwarting  any 
spirit  of  enterprise,  is  his  chief  curse.  He  is  sure  of 
support  at  the  hands  of  the  proprietor,  and  is  not  very 
eager  to  over-exerl  himself  for  the  highest  cultivation 
of  the  estate.  He  also  suffers  the  inconvenience  of 
being  compelled  to  give  his  time  to  the  service  of  the 
government  in  an)/  emergency  when  it  may  be  called 
for.  As  has  been  said,  the  tenant  is  usuall)'  a  Chris- 
tian, and,  if  he  be  orthodox  and  observe  the  exces- 
sively numerous  days  of  religious  fast  and  prayer,  he 
will  not  work  nearly  all  the  year.  It  will  be  seen  that, 
in  the  face  of  these  obstacles,  method  is  utterK'  impos- 
sible, and  until  there  is  a  reform  of  some  kind  j)rogress 
is  not  to  be  hoped  for. 

When  properly  conducted  sheep-farming  is  a  profit- 
able  industry,  the  onl\'  drawback  being  that  the  art  of 
breeding  is  not  understood  so  as  to  insure  the  best  re- 
sults. Almost  every  landed  proprietor  has  grazings 
which  he  rents  out  to  flock-masters.  In  the  letting  out 
of  these  sheep  lands  is  found  one  instance  where  the 
owner  runs  little  or  no  risk,  as  at  least  one-half  of  the 
rent  is  always  required  in  advance,  and  for  the  other 
half  the  flock  itself  is  c'mple  security.  Then,  too.  de- 
spite severe  competition,  the  rents  are  generally  high. 

In  winter  the  sheep  are  taken  up  the  mountain  slopes 
to  graze,  and  when  the  warmer  days  of  summer   come 


306  THE   TURK   AND   THE    LAND    OF   HAIG. 

they  are  again  led  to  pasture  in  the  plains.  This  sum- 
mer pasturing  extends  from  the  beginning  of  May  to 
October,  and  is  the  more  profitable  kind. 

Turkey  has  sometimes  been  suggested  as  a  good 
place  for  the  more  scientific  cultivation  of  sheep.  It  is 
certainly  true  that,  witli  more  careful  breeding,  much 
more  could  be  realized  from  this  source  than  is  the  case 
at  the  present  time.  The  soil  of  Asia  Minor  is  so  re- 
markably rich  and  fertile  that  everything  grows  in 
great  luxuriance,  even  with  little  cultivation  ;  although 
it  might  seem  that  the  fertile  qualities  of  the  soil  would 
quickly  be  exhausted,  as  it  receives  no  manure  save 
from  the  summer  grazing  of  the  sheep. 

In  some  localities  crops  are  sown  every  year,  and  in 
others  during  alternate  years.  Grains,  such  as  wheat, 
barle\',  and  oats,  are  raised.  The  farmers  begfin  to  sow 
in  autumn,  although  some  do  not  finish  until  January, 
and  the  reaping  is  done  in  the  month  of  June.  Owing 
to  the  nature  of  the  climate,  spring  crops  are  usually 
a  failure,  but  about  May  or  April  a  great  staple  of  the 
empire,  tobacco,  together  with  maize  and  other  like 
products,  is  sown.  These  are  harvested  during 
August  and  September.  Tobacco  cultivation  has  at- 
tained a  high  degree  of  perfection,  and  the  product 
brings  a  good  price.  Of  course,  there  are  extensive 
vineyards  scattered  almost  everywhere  in  Asia  Minor, 
and  from  certain  localities  of  it  comes  some  of  the  best 
wine  in  the  world.  Nor  should  we  fail  to  mention 
the  making  of  silk,  which  is  no  mean  industry  of  the 
empire. 

Good  farming  has  been  greatly  retarded  by  the 
very  crude   methods   of   cultivation   everywhere   to  be 


A    TURKISH    LANDLORD    OF    THE    HIGHLST    TYPE. 


308        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

found  ;  and  it  is  the  deliberate  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment to  continue  this  state  of  affairs.  Threshino-  ma- 
chines  are  practically  unused,  and,  consequently,  this 
part  of  harvesting  becomes  a  very  laborious  as  well  as 
wasteful  process. 

There  are  several  modes  of  threshing.  Sometimes 
the  grain  in  the  ear  is  scattered  on  the  barn  floor  and 
horses  are  made  to  gallop  over  it.  In  other  localities 
the  process  is  more  elaborate,  and  a  sled  with  a  flinted 
bottom  is  used,  upon  which  is  often  placed  a  young  girl, 
who  balances  herself  as  she  is  drawn  by  horses  round 
and  round  tlie  threshing-floor,  amid  the  admirinof 
plaudits  of  the  beholders.  The  women,  too,  are  com- 
pelled to  do  their  share,  and  in  the  threshing  season 
usually  commence  work  with  the  men.  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  morning. 

There  seems  to  be  a  decided  aversion  to  farm 
machinery  of  every  kind.  For  instance,  the  plow  which 
is  most  extensively  in  use  is  little  more   than  a  stick. 

It  is  true,  the  earth  has  only  to  be  tickled  to  "laugh 
in  a  harvest,"  but  the  laugh  might  be  a  little  more 
hearty  were  more  modern  plows  introduced  and  used. 
When  the  material  civilization  of  the  West  shall  pene- 
trate Oriental  crudeness,  bringing  its  tools  and  machines 
and  means  of  transportation  ;  when  human  ingenuity 
shall  join  hands  with  nature,  there  will  not  be  found  in 
all  the  world  better  farming  countries  than  European 
and  Asiatic  Turkey. 

The  tax  on  agriculture  is  very  onerous.  The  tithe 
system  is  in  vogue,  and  it  has  always  varied  in  amount 
on  all  produce.  The  tax  is  levied  by  a  person  known 
as  the  multeyim,  who  purchases  from  the  government 


3IO  THE   TURK   AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

the  privilege  of  taxing-  a  certain  territory.  The  pur- 
chase price  constitutes  the  revenue  of  the  government 
from  this  source,  and  the  profits  of  the  collector  are 
measured  by  the  amount  he  is  able  to  extort  from  the 
people  in  excess  of  that  sum.  Thus  the  motive  of  the 
collector  is  self-interest  rather  than  public  service. 
One  redeeming  feature,  however,  which  prevents  worse 
corruption,  is  the  fact  that  the  officers  of  the  state  are 
never  allowed  to  bid  for  tithes. 

Some  of  the  measures  of  this  taxation  are  extremely 
harsh.  For  instance,  the  farmers  are  obliged  to  keep 
their  produce  until  the  collector  comes  to  take  his  por- 
tion, and  thereby  loss  is  often  suffered.  But  the  great- 
est evil  is  in  the  methods  of  assessment.  The  collector, 
by  virtue  of  the  government's  sanction,  resorts  to  un- 
restricted acts  of  violence  and  oppression,  in  his  greedy 
efforts  to  secure  excessive  profits.  At  the  time  of 
the  collection  of  taxes,  accompanied  by  the  zabtich,  or 
police  (in  spite  of  the  law  that  collection  of  taxes  is  to 
be  wholly  separated  from  the  work  of  the  police),  in 
many  cases  he  actually  takes  the  last  cent  from  the 
poor  farmer.  I  have  known  )ears  when  the  crops 
failed  ;  nevertheless,  the  assessor  was  sure  to  appear 
with  the  police  and  seize  the  cattle  of  the  unfortunate 
farmer.  At  times,  in  my  native  city  Marsovan,  the 
yield  of  grapes  was  so  far  overestimated,  as  they  hung 
on  the  vines,  that  when  the  vineyards  were  put  into  the 
tender  hands  of  the  tax-buyer  twenty-five  or  thirty  per 
cent,  of  the  actual  product  was  demanded  from  the  pro- 
ducer. Taking  into  due  consideration  such  execution 
of  laws  with  actual  conditions,  we  need  not  wonder  at 
the  unenterprising  character  and  the  perpetual  poverty 


THE   TURKISH   GOVERNMENT.  311 

of  the  peasantry.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  it  would 
improve  the  condition  of  things  were  the  government 
to  collect  this  tax  directly,  for,  however  exorbitant  its 
taxation  might  be,  the  heaviest  burden  of  legal  exac- 
tion is  light  when  compared  with  the  extortion  prac- 
ticed by  the  mMlteyims. 

Corresponding  somewhat  to  the  ashr,  or  tithe,  on 
arable  land,  is  what  is  termed  the  sayme,  a  tax  on 
sheep,  goats,  and,  sometimes,  cattle.  Before  1858  this 
was  collected  in  kind,  but  since  that  time  one-tenth  of 
the  money  value,  according  to  appraisement,  had  been 
taken  by  the  government. 

Similar  to  the  property  tax  in  this  country  is  the 
verghi,  which  to-day  assumes  two  forms,  a  tax  on 
income  and  a  tax  on  property.  This  is  systematic  and 
based  upon  a  fixed  principle.  The  assessment  of  the 
income  tax  is  made  in  public  meetings,  at  which  all 
concerned  are  permitted  to  be  present,  and  it  differs 
with  the  professions  and  trades,  and  depends  also  on 
the  reputed  wealth  of  the  individual.  In  general,  how- 
ever, it  is  three  per  cent,  on  all  gross  income  from  in- 
vested capital  or  from  any  other  source.  There  are  a 
few  who  are  exempt,  such  as  parish  doctors,  religious 
orders,  and  schoolmasters. 

The  tax  on  real  property  mentioned  above  is 
placed  at  four  dollars  a  year  per  one  thousand  dollars 
on  the  estimated  value  of  all  lands  and  houses,  whether 
subject  to  tithes  or  not.  The  value  of  such  property 
is  calculated  at  five  times  its  produce,  or  twenty 
times  its  assumed  rent,  and,  with  the  tithe,  this  is 
most  oppressive.  It  may  be  added  that  those  who 
receive  rent  from   tenants   are  required  to  hand  over 


312        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

four  per  cent,  per  annum,  tithe-paying  land  alone 
excepted. 

Although  the  Hatti-Sherif  of  1839  and  the  Hatti- 
Humayoum  of  1856  were  to  admit  Christians  into  the 
Ottoman  army,  the  law  has  never  been  fully  enforced. 
Save  a  couple  of  regiments  of  mixed  Cossacks,  there 
are  hardly  any  non-Mussulmans  engaged  in  the  service. 
The  exemption  from  military  duty,  however,  is  not  to 
be  obtained  for  nothing,  and  a  tax,  commonly  termed 
the  bedel,  is  laid  upon  all  non-Mohammedans  not  in 
the  army.  This  tax  in  itself  is  not  unfair,  considering 
that  a  Mohammedan  has  to  pay  more  for  the  exemp- 
tion than  does  a  Christian,  but,  in  common  with  other 
taxes,  the  method  of  assessment  deserves  our  condem- 
nation. 

I  have  known  poor  Armenian  neighbors,  with 
large  families,  who,  upon  their  absolute  inability  to 
meet  the  government's  demands,  were  thrown  into 
prison,  after  being  subjected  to  the  most  brutal  indig- 
nities, thus  leaving  their  families  in  a  state  of  hunorer 
and  despair.  They  were  not  to  be  released  until  the 
government's  demands  were  duly  met.  I  vividly  recall 
instances  when  the  philanthropic  spirit  of  my  father 
was  so  moved  by  the  miseries  of  unhappy  victims  of 
Turkish  outrage  that  he  hastened  to  pay  their  taxes, 
and  thus  secured  their  deliverance  from  Turkish  dun- 
geons. This  most  harassing  and  oppressive  form  of 
taxation  has  long  been  the  cause  of  infinite  trouble, 
aggravated  by  the  rai)acity  witli  which  it  was  enforced. 

Although  in  the  regulations  of  1876  freedom  from 
taxation  was  promised  to  children  and  old  men,  yet,  like 
all  good  promises  of  the  Turk,  this  too  has  remained  a 


1,  > 


a'   W 

a-  X 
X,    C 


314  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

dead  letter,  and  a  full  tax  has  been  exacted  from  males 
of  all  ages.  The  injustice  of  such  a  law  is  unquestioned, 
yet  Armenians  would  have  small  cause  for  complaint 
were  this  the  only  oppressive  feature  in  the  system  of 
Turkish  taxation. 

Some  reforms  have  been  instituted  of  late  years 
which  have  somewhat  enhanced  the  prosperity  of  the 
Turk.  For  instance,  the  eight  per  cent,  tax  formerly 
imposed  upon  goods  passing  from  one  Turkish  port 
to  another  has  happily  been  abolished,  and  an  excise 
of  one  per  cent,  placed  in  its  stead. 

The  indiscriminate  tariff  on  imports  of  eight  per 
cent,  ad  valoi'-em  is  certainly  not  in  accord  with  any 
principle  of  political  economy,  for  it  is  often  the  weapon 
of  exaction  and  of  favoritism,  in  estimatingr  the  value 
of  imports.  The  tax  on  exports  of  native  prod- 
uce is  placed  at  one  per  cent,  if  sent  abroad,  but  eight 
per  cent,  if  sent  from  one  part  of  the  empire  to  an- 
other. 

A  tax  of  considerable  importance  is  that  levied  on 
tobacco,  and,  as  it  is  collected  by  the  agent  of  a  foreign 
company,  it  is,  perhaps,  the  most  frequently  evaded. 
Owing  to  the  severe  penalt)'  inflicted  upon  anyone  dis- 
covered in  the  smuggling  business,  many  ingenious 
methods  are  employed  to  elude  detection.  I  have  known 
of  cases  where  tobacco,  carefully  covered  with  wool,  was 
concealed  in  a  bag  and,  as  usual,  carried  on  the  back. 
Nor  is  this  the  only  way  in  which  the  wool  is  pulled 
over  the  authorities'  eyes.  As  we  have  previously 
stated,  the  tail  of  the  Oriental  sheep  is  quite  large,  and 
some  persons,  diverting  this  appendage  from  the  pur- 
pose by  nature  designed,  use  it  to  hide    a   tale  more 


THE   TURKISH    GOVERNMENT.  315 

wonderful  still.  I  was  surprised  one  midnight  to  see 
a  man  passing  stealthily  through  the  town,  not  on  the 
street  but  from  roof  to  roof,  with  what  appeared  to  be 
a  bag  upon  his  back.  As  it  turned  out  afterward,  the 
bag  was  filled  with  tobacco,  which  he  was  trying  to 
smuggle  to  his  home  in  this  unusual  and  perilous 
manner. 

Various  attempts  have  been  made  to  develop  the  rich 
natural  resources  of  the  empire  and  establish  manufac- 
tories, especially  in  the  country,  labor  being  so  abun- 
dant and  cheap.  At  one  time  a  new  era  seemed  to 
dawn,  and  thousands  of  natives  were  employed  in  fac- 
tories. English  and  French  influence,  however,  inau- 
gurated the  policy  of  free  trade.  Their  goods  were 
imported  at  a  tariff  of  six  or  eight  per  cent,  ad  valorein. 
As  a  natural  consequence  the  Turkish  factories  were 
closed,  and  workingmen  and  their  families  were  reduced 
to  abject  poverty.  The  famous  Bruse  towels  were  im- 
itated, and  sold  much  cheaper,  driving  out  the  native 
goods,  which,  though  costing  more,  would  last  five 
times  as  long.  Combs,  cutlery,  and  silks  came  from 
Sheffield,  Manchester,  and  Lyons.  The  fine  silky 
fleece  of  the  Angora  goat  is  sold  much  cheaper  to  the 
English  manufacturer  than  to  the  native  artisan,  and 
comes  back  enhanced  in  value  from  fifty-  to  a  hun- 
dred-fold. It  is  safe  to  say  that  of  the  wealth  produced 
by  a  native  goat,  forty-nine  dollars  out  of  every  fifty 
go  into  the  pockets  of  foreigners.  America  may  well 
learn  a  lesson  from  the  Angora  goat,  and  continue  to 
resist  a  free-trade  system  that  has  closed  the  factories, 
destroyed  the  revenue,  and  produced  beggary  in  the 
Ottoman  Empire. 


3l6        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

In  spite  of  its  exorbitant  tax  system  the  Turkish 
government  has,  in  the  last  half  century,  been  accumu- 
latino;  laroe  debts,  and  its  direct  borrowinijs  form  no 
little  portion  of  the  general  budget.  In  1889  the  reve- 
nue was  ninety  million  dollars,  while  the  expenditures 
were  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  million  dollars. 

The  entire  system  of  Turkish  finance  is  sorely  in 
need  of  scientific  readjustment.  The  antiquated  "  farm- 
ing-out "  system  should  be  replaced  by  a  system  of  di- 
rect assessment  and  levy  by  officials  of  the  government. 
The  rapacity  and  greed  of  the  tax-farmer  being  elim- 
inated, the  people  would  cheerfully  contribute  to  the 
support  of  the  government.  And  with  the  growth  of 
a  healthy  public  sentiment,  through  gradual  modifica- 
tions, there  might  be  evolved  from  the  present  disorder 
and  confusion  a  general  scheme  of  taxation  along  pro- 
gressive and  scientific  lines.  In  regard  to  the  indus- 
trial incidents  of  tlie  public  finance,  manufacture  seems 
to  require  a  discriminating  protective  tariff,  and  agri- 
culture seems  to  require  larger  expenditures  in  the  line 
of  public  roads  and  other   facilities   for  transportation. 

A  reliable  index  to  the  prosperity  of  any  country  is 
to  be  found  in  its  system  of  taxation.  Whether  such 
taxes  are  proportionately  divided  ;  whether  the  poor  are 
oppressed,  and  the  rich  escape  from  their  rightful  share 
in  the  public  burden  of  expense,  are  questions  the 
answers  to  which,  to  a  large  extent,  determine  the  char- 
acter of  the  nation.  The  proper  administration  and 
regulation  of  public  taxation  have  been  a  serious  and 
unsolved  problem  in  all  ages.  A  wise  administration  of 
taxes  has  raised  empires  to  the  pinnacle  of  world-wide 
glory.     A  too-sweeping  tax  adjudication  has  led  many 


THE   TURKISH   GOVERNMENT.  317 

a  nation  to  irretrievable  downfall.  Taxation  is  the 
tyrant's  mightiest  tool.  Rightly  conducted,  it  serves  as 
the  people's  greatest  blessing.  One  thing  is  certain  : 
no  matter  how  different  the  ways  in  which  taxes  are 
levied,  they  are  essential  to  national  growth,  and  even 
national  existence. 


THE  EASTERN  QUESTION. 


"  A  sick  man — a  very  sick  man.  It  would  be  a  great  misfortune 
if  one  of  these  days  he  should  slip  away  from  us  before  the  nec- 
essary arrangements  have  been  made." — Nicholas  I, 

TT  is  a  rash  claim  for  any  man  to  make  that  he  has 
^  mastered  the  Eastern  Question.  So  complicated  are 
its  issues  that  it  is  hard  to  define,  still  harder  to  com- 
prehend, it.  In  my  conversation  with  a  professor  of 
modern  history  in  one  of  the  leading  American  univer- 
sities, who  is  regarded  as  a  specialist  on  this  subject, 
he  asserted  with  emphasis,  "  I  do  not  understand  the 
question,  and  nobody  else  does."  It  is  a  many-sided 
question,  of  which  the  future  of  Turkey  is  only  a  part  ; 
and  it  leads  out  into  such  a  labyrinth  of  political  entan- 
glements that,  unless  a  person  takes  a  single  point 
of  view,  to  the  utter  disregard  and  exclusion  of  all  side 
issues,  he  will  never  find  his  way  out  of  it. 

For  centuries  the  Eastern  Question  has  been  the 
most  engrossing  problem  that  European  statesmanship 
has  had  to  solve,  and  centuries  may  yet  pass  before  it 
will  be  finally  settled.  While  the  question  has  chiefly 
interested  Russia,  Turkey,  and  England,  it  is  closely 
studied  and  watched,  with  the  deepest  concern,  by  all 
nations  of  the  Continent.  Back  of  all  the  diplomatic 
maneuvering,  the  one  great  aim  of  the  Powers  is  to 
have,  each  and  all,  an  outlet  upon   the   Mediterranean, 

318 


THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  319 

and,  with  this  ultimate  object  in  view,  to  join  in  the 
division  and  get  the  largest  possible  slice  of  Turkey. 
So  long  as  a  practical  method  of  accomplishing  this 
end  is  lacking,  by  reason  of  their  common  greed  and 
mutual  jealousies,  just  so  long  will  the  Eastern  Ques- 
tion continue  to  exist.  Calm  and  peaceful  as  it  may 
sometimes  appear  on  the  surface,  there  are  elements  be- 
neath that  only  await  the  touch  of  the  fuse  to  evoke 
an  eruption  that  will  cause  the  political  world  to 
tremble. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  pointed  out  that 
with  the  Sultan  Suleyman  the  Magnificent  (1520-66), 
the  Turkish  Empire  had  reached  the  zenith  of  its  power 
and  glory.  He  had  led  the  nation  into  the  grandest 
epoch  of  its  history.  He  was  undisputed  master  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  woe  betide  the  ship  flying  a  hostile 
flag  upon  its  placid  bosom  !  But  there  came  a  change. 
Unlike  his  brave  father,  who  had  marched  at  the  head 
of  the  army  and  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-six  amid 
smoking  ruins  and  captured  cities,  Selim  shrank  from 
leading  his  army  in  person,  and  gave  himself  to  the 
excessive  indulgence  of  vicious  appetites.  His 
example  was  followed,  with  rare  exceptions,  by  the 
Sultans  who  succeeded  him.  Their  folly  and  cor- 
ruption would  have  put  an  end  to  their  rule  long  ago 
had  it  not  been  for  the  mutual  jealousy  of  the  Powers 
of  Europe.  In  the  reign  of  Selim  II.  occurred  the 
first  conflict  between  the  Turks  and  Russians.  He 
decided  to  connect  the  Caspian  and  Black  seas  by 
uniting  the  rivers  Don  and  Volga  by  a  canal,  by  means 
of  which  a  Turkish  fleet  could  be  sent  into  the  Caspian. 
This  had  always  been  a  plan  that  Russia  most  desired 


320  THE    TURK    AND    THE    LAND    OF    HAIG. 

to  carry  out  herself.  When,  therefore,  SeHm  dispatched 
five  thousand  laborers  and  eighty  thousand  soldiers  to 
consummate  the  cherished  plan,  he  met  with  opposition 
from  the  Russians.  The  Turkish  soldiers  attacked  the 
town  of  Astrakhan,  the  possession  oi  which  was  neces- 
sary to  construct  tlie  canal,  but  were  repulsed  and  driven 
back.  At  this  time  the  Russians,  while  patriotic  and 
a(,^L;ressive,  occupied  only  a  limited  portion  of  southern 
Europe,  and  were  but  little  known.  Their  antipathy 
to  the  Turks  dates  from  their  heroic  defense  before  the 
walls  of  Astrakhan. 

For  one  hundred  years  the  Ottoman  Empire  had 
stood  alone  in  power  and  might.  Its  armies  had  pene- 
trated victoriously  into  the  heart  of  Europe  and  had 
advanced  to  within  two  score  miles  of  Vienna.  From 
that  city  the  Roman  emperor  fled  before  them,  and 
the  mighty  Cathedral  of  St.  Stephen  barely  escaped 
the  fate  of  St.  Sophia  at  Byzantium,  in  becoming  a 
mosque  of  Allah  and  the  Prophet.  But  soon  the 
bright  splendor  of  the  Star  and  Crescent  was  obscured. 
In  1 57 1  the  ships  of  the  Christian  Powers,  under 
the  command  of  Don  John  of  Austria,  encountered 
the  Turks  outside  of  the  Gulf  of  Lepanto,  and  in  the 
furious  conflict  that  ensued  the  Ottoman  fleet  was 
almost  annihilated.  Such  a  result  proved  of  great 
moral  value  to  Christians.  They  learned  that  the 
Ottoman  navy  was  no  longer  invincible  on  the  seas. 
Defeat  after  defeat,  instead  of  the  usual  victories,  fol- 
lowed the  Turkish  armies  in  quick  succession,  and  but 
for  the  aid  of  the  Poles  the  result  would  have  been 
the  utter  destruction  of  the  Ottoman  Power.  Turkey, 
however,  continued  to  decline,  and  though  she  made 


322  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND    OF   HAIG. 

an  occasional  re-conquest,  it  was  not  of  sufficient 
importance  to  turn  the  tide  of  her  ill  fortune. 

In  the  year  1664  the  Turkish  army  was  completely 
routed  in  a  war  with  the  Germans,  and  twenty  years 
later  another  bloody  defeat  was  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  the  Austrians.  Turkey  was  urged  into  a  war  with 
Russia  by  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden,  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  the  Sultan's  empire  after  the  disaster  of 
Pultowa.  The  contest  nearly  resulted  in  the  crushing 
defeat  of  the  Russians,  who  were  deserted  by  the 
Moldavians,  upon  whose  aid  they  had  in  a  large 
degree  depended.  In  171 1  the  Grand  Vizier  Baltiji 
Mohammed  marched  into  Moldavia  against  the  forces 
of  the  Czar,  and  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Pruth  he 
completely  blockaded  the  army  of  Peter  the  Great. 
Here  the  Vizier  had  his  tireless  foe  entrapped  in  a 
precarious  position,  and  finally  compelled  him  to  sur- 
render. But  his  stupidity,  and  the  adroit  tactics  of 
the  Czarina,  allowed  Peter  the  Great  to  escape  on 
the    easiest    terms. 

In  1736,  with  the  capture  of  the  fortress  of  Azof, 
and  other  important  strongholds,  the  attitude  of  the 
Russians  chanired  to  the  ag-g-ressive,  and  in  their  sub- 
sequent  career  of  ceaseless  warfare  they  proved  to  be 
a  far  more  formidable  adversary  to  the  Turks  than  the 
Austrians.  Austria  now  entered  into  an  alhance  with 
Russia  to  secure  the  ruin  of  Turkey  and  divide  the 
spoils  between  them.  The  discovery  of  this  scheme 
led  the  Turks  to  a  war,  in  which  the  Austrians  were 
defeated  and  driven  across  the  Danube,  while  the 
Russians  victoriously  penetrated  into  the  ver)'  heart 
of  Moldavia.      Again,   in     1769,   the   Russians  invaded 


THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  323 

Moldavia,  captured  the  fortress  of  Choozin,  and,  in 
the  following  year,  conquered  Moldavia  and  Wallachia, 
and  blockaded  and  set  on  fire  the  Turkish  fleet  off 
Chios.  The  notable  treaty  of  Kutchouk-Kainardji, 
made  in  July,  1774,  closed  the  war.  It  provided  for 
the  absolute  independence  of  the  Tartar  territory  on 
the  Crimea,  with  Kuban  and  the  surrounding  districts, 
and  it  further  stipulated  that  under  no  pretext  should 
either  country  meddle  in  their  affairs. 

Scarcely  had  the  treaty  been  signed  when  Russia 
broke  the  terms  by  taking  possession  of  the  Crimea  and 
the  entire  country  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea, and  compelled 
the  Sultan,  in  1784,  to  acquiesce  in  this  action.  It  was, 
however,  Catherine's  fixed  plan  to  drive  the  Turkish 
Power  out  of  Europe  and  restore  the  Greek  kingdom, 
by  placing  her  grandson  on  the  throne  of  Constanti- 
nople. Aware  of  the  scheme,  three  years  later  the 
Sultan  resumed  hostilities  against  his  Russian  foe.  A 
year  later  Joseph  II.  of  Austria  heartily  entered  into 
Russia's  plan  for  the  conquest  and  final  dismemberment 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Again  Austria  was  defeated, 
and  this  time  was  compelled  to  sign  a  treaty  at  Sisto- 
via,  in  1791.  The  Russians,  however,  were  too  powerful 
for  Turkey.  They  overran  its  northern  provinces,  and 
dealt  a  crushing  blow  to  the  Turkish  fleet.  The  Otto- 
man Empire  was  apparently  about  to  fall,  and  its  very 
foundations  seemed  sliaken  by  the  victorious  tramp 
of  the  mighty  Russian  Bear.  All  Europe  now  became 
alarmed.  Pitt  formed  the  Triple  Alliance,  made  up  of 
England,  Prussia,  and  Holland,  for  the  preservation  of 
the  European  balance  of  power  and  the  muzzling  of  the 
Russian   Bear.      Notwithstanding    such    a   serious    ob- 


324        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

stacle,  Catherine  determined  to  continue  her  warfare 
against  the  Turks  until  the  completion  of  her  cherished 
designs.  To  best  accomplish  this,  Russia  and  Austria 
again  effected  an  alliance,  and  the  combined  armies 
proceeded  against  the  common  adversary.  The  result 
was  disastrous  to  Turkey,  which  was  not  only  com- 
pelled to  pay  a  heavy  indemnity,  but  ceded  Bucharest, 
Bender,  Akerman,  Ismail,  and  the  Crimea  and  Kuban 
to  the  Russians,  while  Belgrade  was  given  to  Austria. 
The  treaty  of  peace  with  Russia  was  signed  at  Jassey 
in  January,  1792.  The  Dneister  was  made  the  frontier 
boundary  between  the  two  empires.  The  treaty  also 
recognized  the  protectorate  of  Russia  over  Tiflis.  Had 
it  not  been  for  tiie  strong  influence  of  the  Triple  Alli- 
ance, Catherine  would  have  captured  Constantinople 
itself.  Indeed,  so  intense  was  the  feelinof  of  Pitt 
against  the  predominant  and  grasping  policy  of  Russia 
that  he  united  with  Prussia  for  war  against  Catherine, 
and  nothing  but  the  strong  public  opinion  against  him 
rendered  it  impossible  for  the  English  minister  to 
carry  out  his  plan. 

The  far-sighted  policy  adopted  by  Peter  the  Great, 
the  greatest  Russian  ruler  up  to  his  day,  was  one  of 
acquisition.  Constantinople  and  its  straits  were  his 
dream,  just  as  Jerusalem  was  that  of  the  Crusaders. 
He  knew  that  the  Black  Sea  was  the  only  coast  available 
for  the  military  and  commercial  enterprises  of  his 
people  ;  and  it  was  but  natural  that  he  should  take  a  deep 
interest  in  the  question  of  the  Straits,  the  outlet  of  that 
body  of  water  which  involved  the  maritime  portion  of 
his  domain.  The  position  of  the  Bosphorus  and  the 
Dardanelles,  and  their  strategic  importance,  are  doubt- 


THE    EASTERN   QUESTION.  325 

less  well  known  to  every  one  of  my  readers.  The 
only  countries  bordering  on  the  Black  Sea  are 
Russia  and  Turkey.  But  for  the  narrow  channel  called 
the  Bosphorus,  which  connects  the  Black  Sea  and  the 
Sea  of  Marmora,  the  sea  would  be  to  Russia  simply  a 
great  land-locked  lake.  The  Bosphorus  is  seventeen 
miles  long  and  at  places  only  a  half  mile  wide,  yet  it  is 
so  deep  that  it  enables  the  largest  ship  to  anchor  close 
to  its  shores.  Entrance  from  this  to  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  is  made  possible  by  the  Straits  of  Dardanelles, 
narrow  and  deep  like  the  Bosphorus,  and  forty  miles 
long.  Close  these  straits,  and  Russia  becomes  an  inland 
region,  and  its  ships  in  the  Black  Sea  are  virtually 
land-locked.  Fortify  these  straits,  and  Constantinople 
is  invulnerable  from  the  sea. 

A  treaty  signed  in  1807  between  Great  Britain  and 
Turkey  confirmed  a  right  which  the  Sultan  has  always 
claimed,  i.  e.,  to  exclude  foreign  war  vessels  from  both 
straits.  However,  by  a  second  clause  that  was  inserted 
in  the  treaty  of  Hunkiar-Iskelessi,  July  8,  1833,  Turkey 
and  Russia  effected  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance, 
by  which  the  latter  government  was  granted  the  right 
to  sail  its  war  vessels  through  the  straits,  while  the 
Sultan  was  bound  to  keep  the  Dardanelles  closed  to 
all  war  ships  of  other  powers,  thereby  shutting  out  the 
enemies  of  Russia  from  the  Black  Sea,  but  leaving 
Russia's  own  vessels  free  passage  through  the  straits. 
The  stipulations  of  this  treaty,  to  the  consternation 
of  the  English,  made  the  influence  of  Russia  almost 
supreme  in  Turkey,  and  in  turn  made  the  Sultan  virtually 
a  vassal  of  the  great  Czar.  The  jealousy  of  the  Powers, 
particularly  of  England,  became  very  intense  over  the 


326  THE    TURK    AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

advantage  gained  by  their  political  rival.  At  length 
England,  at  the  head  of  five  great  Powers,  efYected  a 
treaty  in  1841  by  which  no  foreign  fleet  should  enter 
the  straits  in  time  of  peace,  and  in  time  of  war  it 
should  be  the  Sultan's  right  to  allow  the  war  vessels  of 
friendly  nations  to  pass  into  the  Sea  of  Marmora  for 
the  purpose  of  co-operation  with  and  protection  of  the 
Porte.  Thus  the  navy  of  Russia  was  shut  up  in  the 
Black  Sea,  which  has  virtually  always  been  the  case. 
To  change  this,  and  give  his  country  an  unhampered 
commercial  and  military  outlet  through  the  straits, 
Peter  the  Great  had  bent  all  his  energies.  In  his 
alleged  will,  which  was  published  for  the  people,  and 
accepted  as  genuine, — though  now  its  authorship  may 
be  questioned, — he  is  quoted  as  having  said  : 

Raise  war  continually — at  one  time  against  Turkey,  at  another 
against  Persia;  make  dock-yards  on  the  Black  Sea;  by  degrees 
make  yourselves  masters  of  the  Sea  as  well  as  of  the  Baltic; 
hasten  the  decay  of  Persia,  and  penetrate  to  the  Persian  Gulf; 
establish,  if  possible,  the  ancient  commerce  of  the  East  by  way 
of  Syria,  and  push  on  to  the  Indies,  which  are  the  entrepot  of  the 
world.     Once  there,  you  need  not  fear  the  gold  of  England. 

So  thoroughly  did  this  supposed  will  of  Peter  the 
Great  represent  the  attitude  of  Russia  that  the  people 
believed  it  their  duty  to  follow  its  commands,  as  they 
are  doing  with  great  patience  and  zeal.  England,  of 
all  the  Powers,  has  been  most  jealous  of  the  encroach- 
ments of  Russia  in  the  East.  Her  ofificers  and  emis- 
saries continually  report  that  evidences  of  Russian 
intrigue  in  central  Asia  are  apparent ;  and  it  is  known 
that  the  policy  of   England,  even  in  Afghanistan,  was 


328        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

directed  and  influenced  by  the   representations  of  the 
Czar. 

Emperor  Nicholas  had  made  up  his  mind  that  the 
Ottoman  Empire  should  be  speedily  extinguished. 
In  order  to  put  his  plans  into  a  definite  course  of 
action,  he  visited  England  in  person,  in  1844,  ^^^^  there 
plainly  outlined  his  design,  and  exchanged  views  with 
the  British  diplomats  as  to  the  final  dismemberment  of 
Turkey,  His  conversation  at  the  time  gave  the 
impression  that  his  loftiest  ambition  was  to  consum- 
mate a  friendly  alliance  with  the  British  government, 
as  a  prelude  to  dividing  the  spoils  upon  the  collapse  of 
Turkey,  which  he  believed  was  impending.  In  con- 
versation with  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord 
Aberdeen,  then  Foreign  Secretary,  he  spoke  with 
astonishing  frankness  regarding  his  views  on  Turkey, 
its  prospects,  and  what  would  probably  take  place  if  it 
were  dismembered.  When  he  returned  to  Russia  he 
caused  a  memorandum  to  be  drawn  up,  which  he 
believed  embodied  the  views  held  alike  by  himself  and 
Wellinofton  and  Aberdeen.  It  stated  that  England 
and  Russia  were  alike  in  the  belief  that  their  common 
interests  were  conserved  by  the  maintenance  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  in  its  existing  independence  and 
existing  territorial  extent.  That  while  they  both  had 
a  common  and  equal  interest  in  guarding  its  safety, 
yet  while  Turkey  continued  to  violate  its  treaty  obliga- 
tions, it  was  impossible  to  maintain  its  integrity.  Nor 
did  he  speak  with  uncertain  tone  when  he  described 
the  conduct  of  the  Porte.  He  stated  that  Turkey 
relied  upon  the  jealousies  of  the  Powers  to  secure  its 
immunity  in  breaking  treaties  ;  it  believed  that  if  it  did 


NICHOLAS   I.,    EMPEROR   OF   RUSSIA. 


330        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

not  keep  its  engagements  with  any  nation,  others  would 
protect  it  from  chastisement.  Continuing  the  memo- 
randum, he  said  : 

As  soon  as  the  Porte  shall  perceive  that  it  is  not  supported  by 
other  cabinets  it  will  give  way,  and  the  differences  which  have 
arisen  will  be  arranged  in  a  conciliatory  manner,  without  any 
conflict  resulting  from  them. 

It  further  contained  a  clause  that  dwelt  upon  the 
immediate  necessity  of  the  Porte's  improving  the  condi- 
tion of  its  Christian  subjects.  It  was  asserted  that  on 
such  conditions  Russia  and  England  could  but  desire 
the  preservation  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  In  the 
event,  however,  of  the  unforeseen  disaster,  it  was, 
according  to  the  memorandum,  desirable  that  Russia 
and  England  should  arrive  at  an  understanding  as  to 
the  course  of  action  to  be  taken  by  them. 

When  the  copy  of  the  memorandum  reached  Eng- 
land it  was  quietly  filed  away  in  the  Foreign  Office, 
and  was  not  made  public  till  at  a  later  time,  when  the 
Russian  press  maintained  that  the  British  government 
had  for  a  considerable  period  of  time  known  the  views 
of  Russia  regarding  Turkey.  Up  to  the  time  of  its 
publication  the  Czar  had  assumed  that  England  con- 
sented to  his  plan,  following  the  theory  that  "  silence 
gives  consent." 

On  the  evening  of  January  g,  1853,  '"  ^  confidential 
talk  at  St.  Petersburg,  with  the  British  Ambassador,  Sir 
G.  Hamilton  Seymour,  Nicholas  withheld  nothing, 
expressing  himself  in  the  most  positive  manner  re- 
garding the  future  of  Turkey  and  the  arrangements  it 
might  be  necessary  for  Russia  and  England  to  make.  It 
was  then  that  he  gave  expression  to  the  phrase  that  is 


THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  33 1 

now  famous,  and  has  contributed  an  appellation  that  will 
probably  attach  to  the  Ottoman  Empire  as  long  as  it 
exists — "  The  sick  man  we  have  on  our  hands." 

In  subsequent  conversations  with  Sir  Hamilton  Sey- 
mour, he  spoke  of  the  guard  which  treaties  gave  him 
the  right  to  keep  over  the  several  millions  of  Greek 
Christians  in  Turkey,  and  said  he  would  not  permit  a 
permanent  occupation  of  Constantinople  by  Russia ; 
nor  would  he  agree  to  its  being  held  by  any  other  great 
Power.  He  said  he  was  opposed  to  the  reconstruction 
of  Greece  into  a  Byzantine  empire,  and  he  was  even 
opposed  to  the  subdivision  of  Turkey  into  small  repub- 
lics. He  asserted  his  attitude  positively,  that  the  ex- 
istence of  Turkey  in  Europe  should  cease,  and  nothing 
should  be  allowed  to  take  its  place,  not  even  Russia. 
Servia  and  Bulgaria  might  become  independent  states 
under  his  protection.  England  might  take  possession 
of  Egypt  and  Candia ;  but  what  he  desired  was  that 
Russia  and  England  should  come  to  an  agreement 
after  which  he  would  be  totally  indifferent  as  to  what 
other  Powers  might  say  or  do. 

Despite  Nicholas'  outspoken  manner  and  apparent 
good  will  toward  the  English  government,  the  British 
looked  upon  him  as  a  shrewd  schemer  and  plunderer, 
and  the  Czar  in  turn  thought  England  a  faithless  ac- 
.  complice.  England  replied  to  his  overtures  that  she 
did  not  regard  it  as  customary  to  prepare  for  the  disin- 
tegration of  a  friendly  Power,  and  that  she  had  no  wish 
to  take  possession  of  any  part  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
Seeing  that  there  was  no  hope  of  the  English  joining 
him  in  his  project,  the  Czar  retreated  somewhat  from 
his   advanced   position,  and   would  probably  have   en- 


332  THE   TURK   AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

deavored  to  maintain  a  neutral  attitude  in  relation  to 
the  future  of  Turkey.  However,  the  antipathy  of  the 
Russians  toward  the  Turks  was  so  intense,  on  account 
of  the  persecutions  of  their  co-religionists,  that  it  com- 
pelled the  emperor  to  renew  hostilities,  if  he  desired 
to  retain  the  support  of  his  subjects. 

A  cause  for  war  was  not  far  to  seek.  It  was  to  be 
based  upon  the  contentions  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
churches  over  the  holy  places  in  Palestine.  The  Latin 
Church,  under  the  protection  of  the  French  govern- 
ment, had,  during  the  reign  of  Francis  L,  been  given 
the  right  of  protection  in  a  firman,  granted  as  early  as 
1564,  by  Suleyman  the  Magnificent.  Later,  in  1620, 
another yfrw^;^  has  the  following  : 

The  Franks,  ancient  exclusive  possessors  of  the  Great  Church 
of  Bethlehem  and  the  Church  of  the  Tomb  of  the  Virgin,  have, 
of  their  full  accord,  granted  to  each  of  the  other  Christian  com- 
munions sanctuaries  in  the  Superior  Church;  but  the  inferior  por- 
tion, the  place  wherein  Jesus  Christ  was  born  (may  salvation  rest 
with  Him!),  is  the  sanctuary  of  the  Frankish  monks;  no  other 
nation  has  any  right  therein,  and  it  is  forbidden  to  each  and  every 
nation  to  usurp  hereafter  the  said  place.  .  .  We  order  that 
no  individual,  Armenians  or  other,  be  permitted  to  say  Mass  in 
the  place  where  Jesus  Christ  was  born,  a  place  situate  underneath 
the  Church  of  Bethlehem,  no  more  than  in  the  cupola,  which  is 
called  the  Tomb  of  the  Holy  Virgin;  nor,  finally,  in  the  sanctua- 
ries, which,  from  the  old  time,  belonged  to  the  Frankish  monks. 

Thus,  since  the  time  of  the  Crusades,  the  French 
had  the  general  primacy  in  the  holy  places.  Later, 
however,  through  a  religious  propaganda  of  Russia, 
the  Greek  Church  was  granted  the  same  privilege  under 
the  protection  of  the  Czar.  Each  succeeding  Sultan 
gave  these  capitulations  indiscriminately,  totally  disre- 


THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  333 

garding  what  his  predecessors  had  done ;  and,  as  each 
church  claimed  the  general  care  and  primacy  over  the 
holy  places,  there  was  a  constant  quarrel,  each  church 
being  naturally  supported  by  its  protecting  nation. 

About  this  time  Napoleon  III.  installed  himself  as 
Emperor  of  France,  and  he  was  anxious  to  distract  his 
subjects'  attention  from  the  disturbed  condition  of 
home  politics  by  a  brilliant  foreign  policy.  He 
cared  no  more  for  the  incessant  claims  of  the  Latin 
monks  in  the  Holy  Land  than  he  cared  about  the  ex- 
istence of  Turkey,  excepting  as  they  might  be  turned 
into  political  capital.  He  suddenly  became  peremptory 
in  his  claims  that  the  demands  of  the  monks  should  be 
granted.  It  was  his  chance  to  inaugurate  the  new  for- 
eign policy.  His  action,  beyond  a  doubt,  precipitated 
the  Crimean  war  which  followed.  It  would,  however, 
have  occurred   just  the  same  had  France  done  nothino-. 

In  the  negotiations  of  Russia  with  the  Sultan,  just 
preceding  the  Crimean  War,  she  claims  the  exclusive 
protectorate  of  all  the  Eastern  Christians  in  the  Otto- 
man Empire.  An  acknowledgment  of  this  right  was 
the  lever  by  which  the  Czar  sought  to  compass  the  fall 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Russia  based  its  contentions  upon  the  seventh  clause 
in  the  treaty  of  Kutchouk-Kainardji,  made  in  1774, 
between  the  two  governments.  At  the  time  when  the 
clause  was  incorporated  it  v/as  apparently  of  no  marked 
significance.  However,  it  was  destined  to  shake  the 
very  existence  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  clause 
declared  that 

The     Porte     promises    to    protect    constantly     the    Christian 
religion  and   its  churches;  and  also  to  allow  the   minister  of  the 


334        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Imperial  Court  of  Russia  to  make  on  all  occasions  representations 
as  well  in  favor  of  the  new  church  in  Constantinople,  as  in  favor 
of  those  who  officiate  therein,  promising  to  take  such  representa- 
tions into  due  consideration  as  being  made  by  a  confidential 
functionary  of  a  neighboring  and  sincerely  friendly  Power. 

The  church  in  Constantinople  referred  to  was  the 
one  which  the  fourteenth  article  of  the  same  treaty  gave 
Russia  the  right  to  build  in  the  Galata  quarter  of  Con- 
stantinople, in  addition  to  the  chapel  erected  at  the 
house  of  the  minister.  Referring  to  these,  the  treaty 
said  : 

They  shall  be  always  under  the  protection  of  the  ministers 
of  the  Russian  Empire,  and  shielded  from  all  obstruction  and 
damage. 

While  the  specific  right  of  intervention  was  clearly 
attached  only  to  a  single  church  at  Constantinople  and 
its  ministers,  out  of  the  clause  Russia  claimed  the  right 
of  protectorate  over  all  the  Christians  of  the  Greek 
Church  in  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Of  all  the  eminent  European  statesmen,  Mr,  Glad- 
stone alone  accepted  the  Russian  interpretation  of  the 
seventh  clause.  Lord  John  Russell,  in  a  letter  to  Sir 
Hamilton  Seymour,  recognized  the  clause  as  binding, 
tlioiigh  it  is  believed  thoughtlessly  and  without  realizing 
the  importance  that  would  be  attached  to  his  words. 

The  Czar  had  sent  to  Constantinople  to  represent 
him  in  the  negotiations  for  the  settlement  of  the  dis- 
pute about  the  holy  places  Prince  Menschikoff.  This 
man  was  a  typical  oldtime  tyrant,  with  the  fighting 
propensity  of  a  bulldog  ;  haughty  and  arrogant,  inso- 
lent and  harsh,  he  was  apparently  selected  with  a  view 


THE   EASTERN    QUESTION.  335 

to  prevent  an  amicable  settlement.  On  the  same  day 
that  the  decree  settling  the  dispute  appeared,  the 
prince,  who  had  been  empowered  to  settle  or  unsettle 
the  matter,  suddenly  forsook  the  question  of  the  holy 
places  and  sought  another  pretext  for  a  quarrel  by 
introducing  a  new  issue.  He  demanded  that  the  pror 
tection  of  the  eleven  million  Greek  subjects  of  the  Porte 
be  vested  at  once,  and  completely,  in  the  emperor  of 
Russia.  His  demands  were  imperious,  and  his 
language  to  the  Sultan  and  Grand  Vizier  was  per- 
emptory ;  and  he  so  insulted  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs  that  that  official  resio^ned.  In  neeotiatino-  for 
a  treaty  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  he  requested  the 
Turkish  ministers  to  pledge  themselves  not  to  reveal  to 
the  French  or  English  ambassadors  the  nature  of  the 
documents.  This  the  ministers  refused  to  do.  In 
May,  1853,  the  Sultan,  backed  by  the  English  and 
French  Powers,  formally  declined  to  recognize  Russia's 
demand  for  a  protectorate  of  the  Greek  Christians. 
Immediately  the  imperial  arms  were  lowered  from  the 
Russian  embassy,  and  Menschikoff,  in  sinuilatetl  anger, 
withdrew  from  Constantinople,  giving  the  Sultan  to 
understand  that  he  would  wait  a  week  at  Odessa,  and 
if  within  that  time  a  note  of  concession  to  the  Czar's 
demands  was  not  forthcoming,  a  rupture  with  Russia 
might  take  place.  The  Czar  acquiesced  in  the  acts  of 
Menschikoff,  and,  as  no  note  came,  the  war  began. 
Russia  was  prepared  for  the  contest,  for  it  was  expected. 
Troops  had  been  massed  upon  the  Turkish  frontier. 
The  Danubian  principalities  were  occupied  by  the  Czar, 
who  claimed  that  this  was  done  to  secure  guaranty  that 
the   concessions  due  his  <rovernment  would  be  Qranted, 


336        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

but  which  Turkey  declared  would  not  be  made.  In 
the  hope  of  averting  a  conflict,  the  English  govern- 
ment advised  the  Porte  to  disreo^ard  the  attitude  of 
the  Czar,  which  was  admitted  to  be  ample  ground 
for  the  declaration  of  war.  A  Vienna  note  was  pre- 
pared, which,  but  for  the  astute  statesmanship  of  Lord 
Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  would  have  been  accepted.  It 
was  so  cleverly  constructed  that  the  Powers  were 
entirely  misled  by  it.  Russia  had  signified  her  willing- 
ness to  accept  the  note,  and  the  Powers  were  so 
delighted  with  it  that  they  were  in  haste  to  agree  to  it, 
until  Lord  Redcliffe,  the  British  ambassador  at  Con- 
stantinople, pointed  out  that,  while  apparently  not  a 
concession  to  Russia,  it  in  fact  granted  to  that  Power 
the  very  point  which  the  Powers  were  unwilling  to  con- 
cede, namely,  the  claim  to  a  protectorate  over  the 
Greek  Christians  in  Turkish  territory.  Thereupon 
the  Sultan  refused  to  accept  the  note  unless  it  was 
greatly  modified.  The  Russian  government  would 
not  agree  to  a  single  letter  of  modification,  and  all 
hopes  of  European  peace  were  abandoned. 

Actual  military  preparations  were  begun  by  the 
Turks  in  October,  1853,  and  for  a  few  days  they  were 
highly  successful.  Tiien  followed  the  destruction  of 
their  fleet  by  the  Russians  at  Sinope  in  the  Black  Sea. 
Tiiis  engagement  has  ever  since  been  called  the  Mas- 
sacre of  Sinope,  for  in  it  only  four  hundred  Turks  out 
of  four  thousand  escaped  death,  and  all  these  were  more 
or  less  wounded.  The  feeling  in  England  and  France 
was  intense.  The  condition  of  the  Eastern  Christians 
was  altogether  lost  sight  of  by  them  in  the  larger 
issue  raised  by  Russian  aggression,  and  the  Czar  was 


THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  337 

Informed  that  they    were  determined  upon   enforcing 
the   neutrality  of  tlie  Black  Sea. 

The  French  and  Enghsh  ambassadors  were  im- 
mediately recalled,  and  diplomatic  relations  between 
the  two  Powers  and  Russia  ceased.  Napoleon  III. 
dispatched  a  letter  to  Nicholas  requesting  him  to  allow 
an  armistice  to  be  sio^ned  and  to  nes^otiate  a  conven- 
tion  with  the  Porte,  to  be  submitted  to  the  four  Powers. 
If  this  were  not  done,  Napoleon  declared  that  the 
matter  would  have  to  be  settled  by  war,  in  which  the 
French  and  English  would  be  allies.  The  Czar  replied 
that  treaty  rights  confirmed  his  claims  ;  that  the  condi- 
tions upon  which  he  was  willing  to  treat  were  well 
known  ;  and  if  driven  to  arms  he  was  certain  that  his 
nation  would  hold  its  own  as  it  had  done  in  the  war  of 
181  2.  of  which  the  burning  of  Moscow  and  the  disas- 
trous retreat  of  the  French  were  incidents.  The 
British  government,  too,  sent  a  messenger  to  Nicholas 
with  a  note  which  declared  that  unless  the  messenger, 
on  leaving  St.  Petersburg  after  a  stay  of  six  days,  bore 
a  communication  signifying  his  intention  to  completely 
evacuate  the  provinces  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia 
before  April  30,  war  would  be  declared.  The  mes- 
senger left  St.  Petersburg  without  such  a  note,  and 
several  days  later  England  declared  war  against 
Russia.  The  Crimean  War  was  the  result.  England 
and  France  allied  themselves  with  the  Sultan  Abdul- 
Medjid,  and  in  the  spring  of  1854  landed  their  army  at 
Varna.  Austria  occupied  the  Danubian  principalities, 
while  the  Turks  successfully  defended  Silistria,  and  the 
allies  transferred  their  troops  to  the  Crimea.  The  in- 
vasion of  the  Crimea  was  one   of  the   most   disastrous 


338        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

and  one  of  the  fiercest  engagements  of  modern  war- 
fare. Only  tlie  forces  of  little  Sardinia,  under  the  able 
direction  of  Count  Cavour,  escaped  from  its  destructive 
results  with  slight  loss  of  life.  Sevastopol  fell  in 
September,  1855,  and  Moscow  was  set  on  fire. 
Nicholas,  in  chagrin  at  the  defeat  and  the  complete 
failure  of  his  plans,  died,  broken-hearted,  March  2,  1855. 
Then  the  English  and  French  governments  stepped  in 
and  treated  with  Russia  at  once,  as  the  Power  which 
affected  their  interests  more  than  it  did  the  interests  of 
lurkey.  All  the  way  through,  during  negotiations  and 
war,  this  principle  prevailed,  while  Turkey,  without 
much  exertion  of  her  own,  stood  by  and  watched  the 
Western  Powers  who  fouo-ht  her  battles  and  main- 
tained  her  integrity. 

On  the  25th  of  February,  1856,  a  congress  was 
called  at  Paris,  where  Alexander  II.  appeared,  with 
England,  France,  Austria,  Prussia,  Sardinia,  and 
Turkey.  The  object  of  the  congress  was,  of  course, 
to  effect  a  treaty  of  peace.  The  treaty  was  signed  on 
ihe  basis  that  Russia  should  give  to  Turkey  the  por- 
tion of  Bessarabia  adjacent  to  the  mouth  of  the  Dan- 
ube, and  abolish  its  exclusive  protectorate  over  the 
Danubian  principalities.  The  Black  Sea  should  be 
made  neutral  ;  while  its  waters  were  to  be  open  to  mer- 
chant vessels  of  all  nations.  Neither  Russia  nor  Turkey 
should  maintain  warships  or  create  arsenals  there,  and 
each  should  keep  but  ten  lightships  to  watch  the  coast. 

The  signing  of  the  Paris  Treaty,  March  30,  1856,  by 
the  above-named  representative  Powers,  formally  ended 
the  war.  The  independence  and  territorial  integrity 
of     Turkey    seemed    assured,    and    the     controversies 


THE   EASTERN    QUESTION.  339 

about  the  Christian  provinces,  the  Straits,  and  the 
Black  Sea  were  thouorht  to  be  settled. 

Meanwhile  the  Sultan  issued  a  firman  granting 
perfect  religious  equality  between  Christians  and  Mo- 
hammedans and  designed  to  ameliorate  the  condition 
of  his  Christian  subjects.  That  such  a  promise  on  the 
part  of  the  Porte  is  a  sham,  and  simply  designed  to 
throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  Europe,  is  obvious  from  the 
very  fact  that  the  Turk  holds  the  Koran  above  the 
Sultan,  and  the  Koran  recognizes  no  possibility  of 
equality  between  an  infidel  and  a  believer  in  Mo- 
hammed. Therefore  the  Turks  could  not  be  made  to 
obey  the  decree  of  their  ruler  declaring  such  equalit)'. 
One  of  the  most  foolish  stipulations  of  the  treaty  was 
that  tlie  concert  of  Europe  should  have  no  right  to  in- 
terfere, either  collectively  or  separately,  in  the  relations 
between  the  Sultan  and  his  subjects.  This  clause  of 
the  treaty  really  committed  the  Christians  to  the  ten- 
der hands  of  the  unspeakable  Turk,  who  has  always 
held  them  in  bondage.  The  relations  between  the 
Porte  and  its  Christian  subjects  could  mean  nothing 
less  than  acts  of  outrage  and  murder  on  the  part  of  the 
Turks.  Such  has  always  been  the  character  of  those 
relations.  It  was  provided  by  this  treaty,  however,  that 
the  Christian  Powers  should  fold  their  arms  and  stand 
by,  giving  the  Turk  a  free  rein  for  all  sorts  of  bar- 
barity and  carnage,  which  have  ever  characterized  his 
relations  with  his  subjects.  When  Lord  Stratford  de 
Redcliffe,  that  man  of  great  diplomatic  craft,  heard  of 
the  Paris  Treaty,  he  said  : 

"  1  would  rather  have  cut  off  my  right  hand  than 
have  signed  that  treaty." 


340        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

In  a  letter  written  at  that  time,  he  said  : 

How  are  the  Sultan's  reforms  to  be  carried  through— the 
allied  troops  all  gone,  and  no  power  of  foreign  interference 
reserved?  How  is  the  country  to  be  kept  quiet  if  hopes  and 
fears,  equally  excited  in  adverse  quarters,  have  to  find  their  own 
level  ?  What  means  shall  we  possess  of  allaying  the  discordant 
elements  if  our  credit  is  to  decline  and  our  influence  to  be 
overlaid  by  the  persevering  artifices  of  a  jealous  and  artful  ally  ? 
How  can  we  hope  to  supply  the  usefulness  derivable  from  our 
command  of  the  Contingent  and  Irregulars,  if  they  are  to  be 
given  up  ?  In  short,  when  I  hear  the  politicians  of  the  country 
remark  that  the  troubles  of  Europe  with  respect  to  this  empire 
are  only  beginning,  I  know  not  how  to  reply. 

Indeed,  in  subsequent  years  the  isolated  inter- 
vention of  the  Powers,  under  the  ignoble  spirit  of  low 
jealousies,  has  proved  the  death  warrant  of  the  Chris- 
tians under  Ottoman  sway.  Only  four  years  after  the 
Treaty  of  Paris,  the  Sultan  celebrated  his  reforms  with 
the  massacre  of  over  ten  thousand  Syrians  at  Lebanon. 

In    1875  the  Christians  in   Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 
were    forced    to    take  up    arms  to  protect  themselves 
from    Turkish    oppression.      The    insurrection    spread 
to    such   an    extent    that    the  Turks    were    unable    to 
cope    with  it.       Austria    sent    the    famous    Andrassy 
Note,  demanding    immediate   reforms    in    the    Balkan 
Peninsula;    then   the  Porte   played   its  old  game,  and 
promised    that   the    religious    equality  of    its    subjects 
should  be  maintained.      It  also  gave  the  assurance  that 
the  farming  of  taxes  would  be  abolished  and  that  the 
tax  money  levied  in  the  rebellious  provinces  would  be 
expended  there.     The  insurgents,  however,   placed   no 
confidence  in  tliese  promises,  and  joined  with  Servia  in 
declining  to  accept  the  terms. 


THE   EASTERN  QUESTION.  341 

In  1876  the  Turks,  acting  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
EngHsh  Foreign  Office,  made  a  determined  effort  to 
restore  quiet  in  the  perturbed  provinces,  by  a  severe 
enforcement  of  miHtary  law.  It  was  sought  to  intimi- 
date the  insurgents  by  an  exhibition  of  rigorous  miU- 
tary  law.      Bulgaria  was  to  be  made  an  object  lesson. 

Then  followed  the  massacre  of  Bulgarians  by  the 
wholesale.  They  were  tortured  with  nameless  cruel- 
ties. At  the  churches,  whither  they  had  fled  for 
refuge,  they  were  found  dead  in  heaps.  Women  were 
outraged,  and  such  infernal  tortures  as  only  the  Turk 
can  devise  were  inflicted  upon  unresisting  and  help- 
less Christians.  Only  the  massacre  of  the  Armenians 
of  to-day,  a  description  of  which  will  be  found  in  a 
subsequent  chapter,  can  give  an  idea  of  the  barbarity 
and  cunning  of  the  Turks  during  their  campaign  of 
butchery  among  the  Bulgarians.  In  all  the  preceding 
and  subsequent  massacres  of  the  Christians  the  Turk 
simply  acted  in  accordance  with  the  relations  between 
himself  and  his  subjects  which  the  Powers  have  main- 
tained and  respected. 

Tiie  horror  of  these  acts  caused  a  revulsion  of  feel- 
ing which  rose  to  fever  heat  in  England,  and  sympathy 
for  the  Turks  apparently  waned.  Mr.  Gladstone,  then 
in  the  zenith  of  his  power,  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  loud  uproar  that  spread  like  wildfire  through  the 
country  :  "  Better  the  Russians  on  the  Bosphorus  than 
the  Turks  in  Europe."  The  policy  of  protecting  the 
Sultan  from  the  vengeance  of  his  subjects  was  not  only 
relinquished  by  England  but  by  the  Powers  at  large  ; 
and  'this  very  situation  presented  exactly  the  oppor- 
tunity that  the  Emperor  of  Russia  desired,  for  he  was 


342  THE   TURK   AND    THE   LAND    OF   HAIG. 

not  the  man  to  lose  his  chances  when  he  had  the 
advantao-e  of  the  British  sentiment.  He,  therefore, 
claimed  again  the  protectorate  of  Christians,  and 
informed  the  Powers  that  if  they  would  not  co-operate 
Russia  was  prepared  to  end  the  Turkish  misrule  alone. 
The  diplomatic  corps  of  Europe,  headed  by  the 
British  ambassador,  hastened  to  the  Porte,  and  remon- 
strated with  the  Sultan,  urging  him  to  accept  their  advice 
concerning  immediate  reforms  for  improving  the  situ- 
ation ;  and,  as  the  basis  of  their  policy  for  reform,  they 
simultaneously  prepared  a  precise  programme  and 
insisted  upon  the  Sultan,  in  all  possible  ways,  assenting 
to  its  terms,  if  he  wished  to  avoid  a  serious  rupture  with 
Russia.  The  Sultan,  however,  bafifled  the  Powers  in 
their  clamors  for  reform,  and  refused  to  yield  to  the 
counsel  and  entreaties  presented.  Thereupon,  their 
patience  was  exhausted.  Even  Lord  Beaconsfield,  the 
great  supporter  of  the  Turks,  was  obliged  to  remain 
neutral. 

In  April,  1877,  war  was  declared  by  Russia.  It  was 
a  short  contest,  lasting  only  about  nine  months,  and 
resulting  in  the  overwhelming  defeat  of  the  Turks. 
Their  tactics  during  the  war  were  sanguinary  in  the 
extreme.  So  great  was  the  fear  of  the  Czar's  officers 
of  the  fiendish  inhumanities  of  the  Turks  that  many 
were  careful  to  be  in  possession  of  poison,  so  that,  in 
the  event  of  their  being  taken  alive  by  the  enemy,  they 
might  end  their  miserable  existence.  Throughout  the 
war  the  Russians  were  very  considerate  in  their  treat- 
ment of  Turkish  prisoners. 

The  story  of  the  war  need  not  be  related  here  at  any 
length.      The    Russian   army,    over  two  hundred  thou- 


THE   EASTERN    QUESTION.  343 

sand  strong,  crossed  the  Danube.      Osman  Pasha  made 
a  heroic  defense  at   Plevna  and   stormed   the   Shipka 
Pass.     However,  the     Russian    soldiers    unflinchingly 
advanced    through     the     Balkans,     entered     Bulgaria, 
captured    Adrianople,  and    were  within  the  very  out- 
skirts of  Constantinople,  when  a  halt  was  called.     The 
British  fleet  had  appeared  outside  the  Dardanelles  and 
anchored  in  Besika  Bay.     At  San   Stefano  a  treaty  of 
peace    was    concluded.      By    the    terms  of   this  treaty 
Russia  received  the   portion  of   Bessarabia  which  she 
had  lost  in  the  Crimean  War,  together  with  Dobrandja, 
Kars,  Batoum,  and  the  adjoining  Asiatic  territory.      It 
also  recognized  the  establishment  of  Bulgaria  into  an 
autonomous  principality;  a  territorial  compensation  or 
payment  of  a  heavy  indemnity ;  the  absolute  independ- 
ence of  Servia,  Roumania,  and  Montenegro,  with  ex- 
tended territory  ;   the  introduction   of  needed  reforms 
by   a  European  commission   in    Bosnia,   Herzeo-ovina 
Crete,  Thessaly,  and   Epirus.     Added  to  these  stipula- 
tions of  the  treaty,  the  Czar  and  the  Porte  had  come  to 
a  final  understanding  in  regard  to  the  Straits  and  the 
evacuation   by   the  Turks   of    the   Danube    fortresses. 
These  terms  of  the  San  Stefano  Treaty  caused  a  great 
alarm  in  the  diplomatic  circles  of  Great  Britain,  and  her 
fleet    returned  in  haste  through   the  Dardanelles  and 
anchored  at  Princes'  Island,  and  there  made  a  vigorous 
demonstration  for  war.    Meanwhile  England  and  Austria 
announced  their    refusal    to   give    their  assent    to   the 
conditions  of  peace,  because  of  the  advantages  Russia 
had  secured  for  herself,  in  violation  of  the  terms  of  the 
Paris  Treaty,  and  demanded  that  the  Powers  should  be 
given  a  fair  chance  to  reconsider,  so  as  to  discuss,  ratify, 


344        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

or  annul  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano. 
Russia  rekictantly  consented  to  disgorge  her  conquests 
and  to  submit  the  treaty  to  a  European  conference. 
Meanwhile  England  made  a  secret  treaty  with  Turkey, 
in  which  Great  Britain  undertook  to  defend  the  Porte  by 
force  of  arms,  in  the  event  of  Russia's  making  a  future 
attempt  to  take  any  more  than  Batoum,  Ardahan,  and 
Kars  of  the  Sultan's  possessions  in  Asia.  In  return, 
the  Porte  assigned  the  island  of  Cyprus  to  be  occupied 
and  administered  by  England,  and  promised  to  intro- 
duce reforms  looking  toward  the  amelioration  of  the 
condition  of  the  Christian  subjects. 

The  proposed  conference  assembled  at  Berlin  in 
July,  1878.  It  was  perhaps  the  most  notable  con- 
course of  European  diplomats  in  modern  history. 
The  British  jingoism  which  was  robbing  Russia  of 
the  principal  results  of  her  war  with  Turkey,  by  forcing 
this  conference  upon  the  court  of  St.  Petersburg,  had 
as  its  chief  representative  Disraeli,  a  man  of  keen  and 
shrewd  diplomacy.  So  superior  was  he  in  craft  to  his 
right-hand  man,  Loid  .Salisbury,  that  he  evoked  the 
historical  remark  of  Gortschakoff  to  Bismarck. 
"Salisbury,"  said  the  Russian  plenipotentiary,  "is  a 
lath,  painted  to  look  like  iron,  but,"  referring  to 
Disraeli,  "oh,  that  d d  Jew!" 

Disraeli  had  carried  his  point  in  triumph.  Not  only 
the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano  had  been  thrown  aside,  but 
the  Porte  recognized  in  the  English  its  greatest  friend 
and  ally.  At  the  conference  a  new  concert  was  agreed 
upon  between  the  seven  great  Powers — England,  Rus- 
sia, Germany,  Austria,  France,  Italy,  and  Turkey.  The 
Berlin  Treaty  consists  of  sixtN-four  articles.      Bulgaria, 


THE   EASTERN    QUESTION.  345 

north  of  the  Balkans,  was  made  a  principahty  paying 
tribute,  but  exempt  from  Turkish  rule.  South  of  the 
mountain  range  was  formed  the  province  of  Eastern 
Roumelia,  ruled  by  a  Christian  governor  general, 
but  nominally  under  the  SultaA's  political  authority. 
Roumania  and  Servia  were  formally  declared  independ- 
ent. Herzegovina  and  Bosnia  were  given  to  Austria. 
Besides  Bessarabia,  Russia  acquired  Batoum,  Kars, 
and  Ardahan,  in  Asia. 

That  the  decision  of  the  Berlin  Coneress  did  not 
settle  the  Eastern  Question  is  plain,  in  the  light  of 
subsequent  events.  It  must  be  remembered  that  in 
receiving  Cyprus  for  her  part  England  made  a  pledge 
to  enforce  good  government  in  Armenia,  and  the 
Sultan  made  the  following  specific  and  solemn  promise 
in  the  sixty-first  article  of  the  treaty  : 

The  Sublime  Porte  undertakes  to  carry  out,  without  further 
delay,  the  improvements  and  reforms  demanded  by  local  require- 
ments in  the  provinces  inhabited  by  Armenians,  and  to  guarantee 
their  security  against  Circassians  and  Kurds.  It  will  periodically 
make  known  the  steps  taken  to  this  effect  to  the  Powers,  who  will 
superintend  their  application. 

This  article  of  the  treaty  not  only  gave  a  guarantee 
of  security  for  the  property,  life,  and  liberty  of  the 
Christians,  but  it  gave  the  signatory  Powers,  par- 
ticularly England,  the  right  to  take  action.  Yet  the 
lethargy  of  the  Powers  in  general,  and  of  England  in 
particular,  is  hard  to  realize,  still  harder  to  explain. 
Actuated  by  mutual  distrust  and  jealousy,  the  diplomacy 
of  the  Eastern  Question  has  been  a  game  of  blindman's 
buff  with  every  player's  eyes  bandaged.     The  effort  to 


346        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

maintain  the  European  concert  seems  to  be  impossible, 
in  view  of  underground  and  entangling  alliances.  Bis- 
marck's recent  revelations,  for  instance,  disclose  an  ex- 
ample of  such  mischievous  trickery  of  diplomacy  as  to 
prevent  the  effective  action  of  the  nations  concerned  in 
the  European  balance  of  power. 

When  Christian  nations  do  not  combine  to  put  down 
the  evil  acts  of  the  Turks,  the  inference  becomes  obvi- 
ous that  either  the  evil  of  the  Turks  is  not  very  bad, 
or  the  Christian  nations  hardly  deserve  their  name. 
What  is  clear,  in  the  light  of  actual  conditions  in  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  is  that  the  Turk  is  an  absolute  in- 
carnation of  evil.  He  has  always  broken  his  solemn 
pledges  and  promises  of  decent  government,  and  has 
made  the  lives  of  his  Christian  subjects  a  veritable  hell 
on  earth,  with  outrage,  robber}',  and  wholesale  mas- 
sacres ;  and  certainly  he  has  falsified  all  excuses  for  his 
political  existence.  However,  he  understands  the 
Powers  to  perfection,  and  uses  the  advantage  derived 
from  their  mutual  jealousies  over  his  possessions  in 
playing  one  Power  against  the  other,  in  which  art  he 
has  become  an  expert   from   years  of  practice. 

If  there  is  any  Power  in  the  world  responsible  above 
others  for  giving  the  Turk  such  an  advantage,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  blood  of  many  thousands  of  Christians, 
it  is  England.  For  about  a  hundred  years  Great 
Britain  has  made  the  Turkish  Power  a  pawn  in  the  game 
of  her  imperial  politics.  She  has  frequently  stepped 
in  and  helped  the  Turkish  armies  when  they  were  on 
the  verge  of  annihilation  ;  and,  by  so  doing,  has  enabled 
the  Turks  to  continue  their  career  of  blood. 

Since  the  Crimean  War,  particularly,  there  has  been 


THE   EASTERN   QUESTION.  347 

an  increasing  feeling  of  hatred  against  the  EngHsh  on 
the    part  of  Christians  in  Turkey.     These   plundered 
and  outraged  subjects  of  the  Porte,  when  they  were  in 
a  position  to  raise  a  formidable  revolutionary  opposition, 
were  intimidated  or  repressed  by  force  of  English  arms. 
For  instance,  in  1862,  the  Servians,  after  the  bombard- 
ment of  Bulgaria,  made  a  determined  attempt  to  supply 
themselves  with   munitions    of  war.      They  were   just 
about  to  secure  good  arms  through  an   English  firm, 
when  the  British  government  stepped  in  and  prevented 
the  deal  from  being  carried  out.      In  this  way  the  Ser- 
vians were  unable  to  secure  efficient  arms.      When  at  last 
they  secured  some  second-hand  Russian  arms,  they  did 
so  against  the  direct  opposition  of  the  English  consul 
general,  who  at  the  same  time  aided  the  Turks  in  every 
possible  way.     Again,  in  1876,  when  the  Bosnians  were 
striking  a  blow  for  freedom,  Great    Britain  did  all    she 
could  to  discourage  the  insurgents  and  to  aid  the  Sul- 
tan.     Mr.    Holmes,   the    consul    general    in    Serajevo, 
acting  in  accord  with  the  position  taken  by  the   British 
Cabinet,  urged  upon  the  vali  to  take  steps  at  once  to 
sweep  the  insurgents  out  of  Bosnia.      England  has  thus 
nearly  always  aided  the  Sultan,  to  the  detriment  of  the 
Christians.     She  has  done  this,  not  because  the  Sultan 
has  her  good  wishes,  but  because  in  her  perpetuation  of 
his  present  control  of  the  Straits,  lies  the  most  appar- 
ent  safety  of   England's   commercial   intercourse  with 
her  vast  Indian  empire.     And  she  is  determined  that 
Russia,  her  naval  rival,  shall  not  get  an  inch  of  advan- 
tage over  her  in   Turkish  waters.      Other  commercial 
considerations  also  have  weight ;  for  the  merchants  of 
the  English  nation  hold  the  chief  share  of  trade  through 


34^        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

the  Bosphorus,  up  the  Danube,  and  with  Black  Sea  and 
Sea  of  Azof  ports. 

Should  Russia  or  any  other  hostile  power  hold  Con- 
stantinople and  its  straits,  it  would  endanger  this  trade 
as  well  as  threaten  the  Indian  commerce  and  communi- 
cation. The  financial  consideration,  too, — the  many 
millions  of  Turkish  pounds  of  which  the  English  are 
bondholders, — enters  into  the  issues  of  the  English  policy 
on  the  Eastern  Question.  Morever,  the  Sultan  is  the 
visible  head  of  the  Mohammedan  religion,  and  England 
could  not  oppose  him  without  deeply  offending  more 
than  half  her  subjects  in  India.  If  the  Sultan  is 
friendly  to  England,  she  has  a  powerful  ally  whose  in- 
fluence in  a  crisis  in  India  would  mean  considerable. 
On  the  English  policy  in  the  Eastern  Question,  Mr. 
John  Bright,  in  an  address,  has  made  the  following 
straightforward  utterance  : 

England  imagines  that  some  great  danger  will  happen  to  her; 
that  she  will  lose  her  predominance  in  the  Mediterranean,  or  that 
her  route  to  India  will  be  in  some  degree  molested,  if  a  Russian 
ship  of  war  should  come  through  the  Straits,  and  therefore  Eng- 
land is  anxious  to  maintain  Turkey  in  its  present  position,  hold- 
ing the  key  of  the  Straits,  and  forbidding  any  portion  of  the  Rus- 
sian navy  to  pass  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean. 
Now,  you  see,  England, — I  speak  of  England  as  it  has  been,  and 
England  as  represented  by  the  present  administration — England 
is  afraid  that  if  the  Turk  went  out  the  Russian  would  come  in, 
and  therefore  we  are  driven  to  this  dreadful  alternative,  that  we 
must  support  the  Turk,  with  all  his  crimes,  and  with  all  his  cruelty, 
and  we  must  support  too,  as  we  did  practically  support,  the  Mo- 
hammedan religion  throughout  the  whole  of  that  portion  of  the 
world.  We  give  Bethlehem  and  Calvary  and  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  through  the  blood  and  treasure  of  England,  and  the 
power  over  all  those  vast   countries,  which  are  almost  a  wilder- 


LORD   SALISBURY,    PRIME   MINISTER   OF   GREAT   BRITAIN. 


350  THE   TURK   AND   TPIE    LAND    OF   HAIG. 

ness  and  a  desert  under  the  Turkish  scepter — we  do  all  this  for 
the  simple  purpose  of  preventing  Russia  passing  by  any  ships  of 
war  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean. 

Even  Lord  Salisbury  himself  in  a  mild  tone  admitted 
the  ignoble  character  of  the  policy,  in  his  assertion  in 
1858,  that 

.  .  .  The  consequence  was  that  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
our  claims  to  be  regarded  as  the  champions  of  liberty  were  looked 
upon  as  hypocritical  boastings;  for  while  we  were  loud  in  our 
professions  we  were  lax  in  our  practice. 

The  Armenian  massacres  of  to-day  have  once  more 
brought  the  Eastern  Question  prominently  before  the 
world.  While  these  massacres  have  virtually  the  same 
leading  features  as  the  previous  ones,  they  have  given 
a  different  complexion  to  the  Eastern  Question.  Eng- 
land and  Russia  have  exchanged  positions  in  their 
traditional  attitude  toward  the  Turkish  government. 
England  has  come  to  the  conviction  that  the  Ottoman 
Empire  is  hopelessly  corrupt  and  that  it  had  better 
be  ended  than  mended.  With  this  conviction,  Great 
Britain  appeared  ready  and  anxious  to  treat  with  the 
Powers  for  Turkey's  destruction.  To  prove  that  this 
was  not  idle  talk,  she  sent  a  fleet  to  the  Dardanelles 
and  threatened  to  send  it  to  Constantinople.  Indeed,  at 
one  time  it  appeared  as  though  the  Powers  were  united 
with  England  in  this  aim  and  conviction,  and  were 
really  acting  together  in  earnest  for  a  common  object. 
Squadrons  sailed  under  six  flags  on  their  way  to  make 
a  demonstration,  and  the  most  powerful  fleet  ever 
gathered  together  assembled  at  Salonica  Bay.  Nobody 
seemed  to  know  which  way  the  storm  was  coming,  and 


THE    EASTERN    QUESTION.  35 1 

there  was  no  little  guessing  in  regard  to  the  direction  of 
its  blast. 

The  most  expert  students  of  the  troublesome  Eastern 
Question  are  still  at  a  loss  to  imagine  what  will  be  the 
next  chapter  of  its  tedious  history.  There  was  sud- 
denly a  hitch  in  the  understanding  arrived  at  between  the 
Powers.  The  European  concert  was  broken  ;  for  while 
they  were  advocating  peace,  each  Power  was  trying  to 
get  ahead  of  the  others  in  securing  the  largest  possible 
slice  of  Turkey.  Meanwhile  the  massacres  went  on. 
Although  Russia  and  France  are  in  alliance,  yet  they 
appear  diametrically  opposed  in  case  the  partition  of 
the  Sultan's  domain  be  effected.  France  wants  Syria 
and  Palestine ;  while  Russia  wants  Constantinople,  to 
which  the  French  are  unalterably  opposed.  The  Czar 
dare  not  let  the  Holy  City  fall  into  the  hands  of  a 
Roman  Catholic  nation,  for  it  might  cost  him  his 
throne.  Austria  would  not  consent  to  Russia's  possess- 
ing Constantinople  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  The 
question  of  Macedonia  also  enters  into  the  issue  and 
makes  more  complex  the  solution  of  the  problem.  It 
was  these  and  other  underhand  complications  that 
proved  too  strong  to  allow  of  joint  action  in  the  East. 
The  Sultan,  a  perfect  master  of  the  situation,  has  become 
convinced  that  his  country  is  safe  from  any  external 
interference  ;  so  he  continues  to  oppose  and  ignore  the 
demands  and  threats  of  foreign  Powers,  and  was  even 
quite  indifferent  as  to  the  fortifying  of  his  domain  for 
the  remotely  probable  necessity  of  a  defensive  stand. 
The  consequence  of  this  resolute  attitude  on  the  part 
of  the  Porte  was  that  the  governments  of  Europe 
quickly  withdrew   their  ironclads,  with  the  unpleasant 


352        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

consciousness  that  a  very  large  mountain  had  brought 
forth  a  ridiculously  small  mouse. 

The  latest  events  clearly  indicate  that  Russia,  after 
the  lesson  taught  her  by  the  Berlin  Congress,  and  the 
preceding  events,  that  no  power  should  step  outside  the 
European  concert  to  deal  with  Turkey  by  force  of  arms, 
persistently  declined  forcible  interference,  and  entered 
into  an  alliance  with  the  Sultan  on  the  lines  of  the 
Hunkiar-Skelessi,  and  gave  it  to  be  clearly  understood 
that  she  will  not  tolerate  it  on  the  part  of  others. 
Meanwhile  the  Czar  has  turned  his  attention  from 
European  Turkey  to  China. 

The  scope  of  the  Eastern  Question  has  enlarged 
of  late.  While  it  originally  related  to  the  troubles  that 
arose  between  the  Greek  Christians  and  the  Turks, 
to-day  the  question  virtually  is :  "  Who  shall  have  con- 
trolling influence  overall  of  Asia — England  or  Russia  ?" 

The  Armenian  massacre  is  but  a  little  incident  when 
compared  with  the  tremendous  issues  involved  in  this 
greatest  of  international  agitations.  Indeed,  centuries 
will  pass,  and  millions  of  lives  be  sacrificed,  before  the 
Eastern  Question  will  be  settled.  However,  it  is  not 
within  the  province  of  this  volume  to  engage  exten- 
sively in  the  discussion  of  it.  The  following  chapters 
will  be  occupied  with  the  internal  commotions  pre- 
vailing in  the  Turkish  Empire. 


THE  CHRONIC  CONDITION  OF  ARMENIA. 
AND  THE  CAUSES  OF  HER  TRAGe' 
DIES. 


"They  are  slaves  who  fear  to  speak 
For  the  fallen  and  the  weak; 
They  are  slaves  who  will  not  choose 
Hatred,  scofifing,  and  abuse, 
Rather  than  in  silence  shrink 
From  the  truth  they  needs  must  think; 
They  are  slaves  who  dare  not  be 
In  the  right  with  two  or  three." 

— James  Russell  Lowell. 

n^HAT  my  reader  may  the  more  fully  comprehend 
the  extent  of  the  calamity  at  this  moment  threaten- 
ing our  unhappy  people,  it  is  necessary  that  I  should 
give  some  account  of  the  chronic  condition  of  the 
Armenian  provinces. 

Many  years  before  the  recent  massacres,  and  more 
particularly  since  the  accession  of  the  present  Sultan, 
the  general  condition  of  the  five  southeastern  prov- 
inces,—Van,  Bitlis,  Moush,  Bayazed,  and  Diarbekir,— 
which  in  the  main  comprise  our  lost  country,  has  been 
one  of  deliberate  misgovernment  and  of  uncompromis- 
mg  outrage.  There  has  been  an  almost  uninterrupted 
reign  of  terror,  with  daily  increasing  evidences  of  un- 
lawful depredations,  and  the  moral  effect  has  been  to 
place  the  life  and  property  of  the  Armenians  at  the 
mercy  of  every  Moslem. 

353 


354        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

The  Kurdish  tribes  of  the  borderingr  mountains — 
unmitigated  rogues,  thieves,  and  cutthroats  by  birth — 
were  dehberately  cut  loose  by  the  Turki^li  government 
to  prey  upon  the  Armenian  peasantry.  The  Kurds,  in 
turn,  ever  true  to  their  natural  instincts  of  plunder  and 
robbery,  sharing  to  some  extent  the  Moslem  antipathy 
for  the  Christian,  kept  up  a  systematic  campaign  against 
their  peaceable  Armenian  neighbors,  who  had  no 
greater  desire  than  to  be  let  alone  to  enjoy  the  labor  of 
their  hands  and  the  worship  of  their  ancestral  religion. 
The  poor  victims,  disarmed  by  the  Turkish  government, 
were  hopelessly  incapable  of  anything  like  self-defense. 
In  order  to  remove  all  possible  danger,  not  only  were 
the  Kurds  exempted  from  taxation,  but,  in  the  year 
1 89 1,  the  Sultan  hit  upon  the  policy  of  making  them 
over  into  a  kind  of  irregular  Turkish  army  ;  and,  equip- 
ping them  with  the  best  of  modern  weapons  and  am- 
munition, in  place  of  their  ancient  flintlocks,  he  let  them 
loose  in  their  mountain  homes,  instead  of  keeping  them 
in  regular  service.  Under  such  an  organized  brigand- 
age all  the  fiercest  barbaric  passions  were  set  free, 
unbridled  and  unchecked,  while  the  Turkish  ofificials 
watched  with  happy  satisfaction  the  rapid  devastation 
of  Armenian  industry.  Midnight  raids  upon  Armenian 
villages,  looting  houses,  attacking  caravans,  carrying  off 
crops,  lifting  cattle,  burning  corn  and  hay,  kidnaping 
children,  dishonoring  women,  became  a  sort  of  pleasant 
and  profitable  pastime  with  the  Kurdish  aghcs.  Not 
only  did  the  Turkish  government  place  no  restraint 
upon  the  Kurds,  but  it  actually  incited  them  with  re- 
wards for  excess  in  ferocity.  It  is  considered  presump- 
tion and  insolence  for  an  Armenian  to  complain  to  the 


THE   CHRONIC   CONDITION   OF  ARMENIA.  355 

officials  for  wrongs  clone  him  by  the  Kurds  and  Turks, 
and  his  protests  are  not  only  utterly  disregarded,  but  he 
is  thrown  into  prison  to  be  tortured  and  outraged. 
Such  has  been  the  fate  of  hundreds  of  Armenians,  par- 
ticularly in  the  vilayet  and  city  of  Bitlis ;  and  when 
once  in  the  noisome  dungeon,  nothing  but  death  or  the 
payment  of  large  bribes  could  secure  their  release. 
Truth  may  sound  stranger  than  fiction,  yet  there  are 
still  stranger  truths  of  Turkish  brute  tyranny  of  which 
I  dare  not  speak,  for  their  meaning  could  be  found  no- 
where but  in  the  regions  of  hell. 

Bad  as  the  Kurd  is,  in  justice  let  me  say  he  is  not 
half  so  bad  as  the  Turk.  To  the  truth  of  this  asser- 
tion any  Armenian  who  has  lived  in  his  neighborhood 
can  wholly  subscribe.  It  is  true  that  the  Kurd  loots 
houses,  plunders  property,  and,  when  resisted,  commits 
murder;  but  he  has  some  little  sense  of  pity  and  hu- 
manity, and  some  regard  for  the  trutli,  which  is  more 
than  can  be  said  of  the  Turk.  The  Kurds  plunder  and 
murder  for  the  sake  of  booty,  while  the  Turk  regards 
the  plunder  and  murder  of  non-Moslems  as  a  religious 
privilege  and  duty.  It  is  the  Turk  who  holds  the  reins 
of  the  government,  and  it  is  he  who  is  the  real  aggres- 
sor every  time,  while  the  Kurd  is  simply  a  tool  in  his 
hands  to  carry  out  his  deliberately  planned  policy  of 
exterminatinof  the  Armenians.  In  him  are  combined 
the  pugnacity  of  the  bulldog,  the  ferocity  of  the  tiger, 
and  the  cunning  of  the  fox.  Allured  by  the  prospect 
of  a  paradise  of  voluptuous  pleasure,  he  is  eager  to 
fling  himself  into  the  fight  against  the  infidel  in  the 
name  of  Allah  and  the  Prophet. 

The  Turk's  increasing  intolerance  towards  the  Chris- 


356 


THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 


tians  has  by  no  means  been  confined  to  the  Armenian 
provinces.     In  the  summer  of  the  year   1889,  while  in 


MOSLEM   CUTTHROATS   IN    ARMENIA. 


Constantinople,  I  visited  the  Turkish  prison  in  search 
of  an  intimate  friend  and  schoolmate,  who  was  on  trial 
for  his  life  for  having  written  an  essay  on  Mohammed- 
anism.    The  indictment  was  based  upon  the  following 


THE   CHRONIC   CONDITION  OF  ARMENIA.  357 

words,  with  which  the  unsuspecting  schoolboy  had 
closed  his  ambitious  literary  effort :  "  May  the  happy 
day  soon  come  when  the  cross  of  Christ  will  triumph 
over  the  crescent  of  Mohammed."  While  in  a  Turkish 
dungeon,  to  my  dismay  I  found  many  Armenians,  mostly 
of  the  higher  classes,  who  were  imprisoned  on  base- 
less and  often  most  ridiculously  absurd  political  charges. 
I  saw  there  a  venerable  priest  of  our  national  church, 
whose  mild  and  fatherly  countenance  was  overshadowed 
with  the  gloom  of  despair,  as  he  sat  meditating  upon 
his  impending  doom.  His  crime  was  a  pious  entreaty 
to  his  flock  to  gather  under  the  banner  of  Christ  Jesus. 
This  purely  religious  sentiment  had  been  interpreted  as 
a  seditious  utterance  against  the  Turkish  government. 
Such  a  thing  may  perhaps  appear  incredible  to  a  free- 
born  American,  yet  one  needs  only  to  know  the  Turk 
in  order  to  learn  how  excitable  is  his  imagination,  and 
what  a  wonderful  capacity  he  has  for  creating  pretexts 
out  of  the  veriest  trifles  to  enable  him  to  carry  out  his 
nefarious  plans. 

Here  are  a  few  examples  of  the  prohibitory  edicts 
which  have  gone  forth  :  No  dictionary  shall  be  allowed 
to  circulate  which  contains  such  words  as  "liberty," 
"equality,"  "evolution,"  "  insurrection,"  "  war,"  as  such 
words  might  incite  the  minds  of  the  people.  The 
translation  of  the  hymn, 

"The  children  are  gathering  from  near  and  far, 
The  trumpet  is  sounding  the  call  for  the  war," 

is  forbidden  as  being  revolutionary.  In  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  "  Thy  kingdom  come,"  and  all  similar  passages 
of  the   Scriptures  suggestive  of   dominion,  power,  and 


358        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

battle  ;  and  such  phrases  as  "  Kingdom  of  Heaven," 
"  Kingdom  of  Christ  "  ;  or  such  words  as  "  According 
to  the  law  of  the  Jews,"  are  strictly  forbidden.  Even 
the  word  "Armenia"  has  been  stricken  out  of  every 
book.  Should  papers  and  books  published  outside  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire  displease  in  any  way  the  Turkish 
censors  or  the  press,  the  mere  possessor  of  them,  if 
detected,  is  at  once  placed  behind  the  bars  and  dealt 
with  according  to  Turkish  justice,  I  have  known  of 
persons  who,  having  once  been  thrown  into  prison 
upon  such  trivial  accusations,  have  never  again  been 
allowed  to  see  God's  free  sunshine.  Of  late  years  the 
Armenians  have  hardly  been  allowed  to  breathe  without 
being  accused  of  unheard-of  crimes  and  locked  up. 

The  bitter  hostility  of  the  present  Sultan  to  the 
Christian  element  of  his  population  has  become  more 
and  more  manifest  every  year.  One  of  his  first  acts, 
after  his  accession  to  the  throne,  was  to  replace 
Armenians  by  Turks  in  all  the  high  official  positions  of 
the  state  which  the  competence  and  integrity  of  our 
people  had  secured  for  them  during  the  reign  of  Abdul- 
Aziz.  That  a  few  Armenians  still  hold  high  govern- 
mental posts  is  due  to  the  fact  that  there  is  not 
competence  enough  among  the  Turks  to  warrant  their 
removal. 

Early  in  1893  it  appeared  as  though  the  crisis  had 
been  reached  and  the  eatherinof  storm  was  soon  to 
burst  from  western  Turkey  instead  of  from  the 
Armenian  provinces  ;  but  the  storm  passed  off  at  the 
time  with  comparatively  little  damage  to  the  Christians, 
yet  with  sufficient  indications  tliat  it  would  break  over 
the  Armenians  sooner  or  later. 


360  THE    TURK   AND    THE    LAND    OF   HAIG. 

On  the  night  of  the  5th  of  Januar)-,  1894,  in  my 
native  city  Marsovan,  and  in  Yuzgat,  hundreds  of 
placards  were  posted  in  pubHc  places  with  words  of 
bitter  denunciation  of  Turkish  corruption  and  oppres- 
sion. This  created  a  great  excitement  among  the 
Turks  and  occasioned  the  wholesale  arrest  of  hundreds 
of  Armenians  in  the  province.  Some  of  the  prisoners 
were  tortured  into  insanity,  and  false  witnesses  were 
produced  by  the  Turkish  authorities  to  implicate  the 
entire  Armenian  population  in  a  plot  for  the  posting 
of  placards  in  the  two  cities  and  then  order  a  general 
massacre.  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  it  is  still  a 
profound  mystery  as  to  who  was  the  author  or  the  pub- 
lisher of  the  placards,  whether  it  was  done  by  the  Arme- 
nian Huntchagians  or  by  the  Young  Turkey  Party, 
which  is  equally  hostile  to  the  existing  administration. 

Among  those  arrested  were  two  of  my  former 
teachers.  Professor  Thoumaian  and  Kayayan  of  Ana- 
tolia College.  While  there  was  not  sufficient  evidence 
of  their  connection  w'ith  the  issuing  of  the  placards 
to  warrant  their  arrest,  nevertheless  they  were  put  into 
close  confinement,  bail  was  refused,  and  no  one  was 
permitted  to  visit  them.  Meanwhile  lawless  Turkish 
mobs  committed  all  sorts  of  outrages  in  Marsovan, 
Yuzgat,  and  Csesarea.  One  of  the  buildings  of  the 
Young  Ladies'  Seminary  at  Marsovan,  which  was  in 
process  of  erection,  was  burned  to  the  ground.  The 
guilt  of  the  Turkish  officials  in  setting  fire  to  this 
American  property  having  been  conclusively  established, 
the  United  States,  with  firmness  and  resolution, 
demanded  indemnity,  and  finally  secured  it,  together 
with  a  permit  to  rebuild. 


THE   CHRONIC   CONDITION   OF   ARMENIA.  361 

When  the  trial  of  the  professors  came  on  they  were 
condemned  to  death,  with  fifteen  other  Armenians. 
The  trial  was  from  start  to  finish  thoroughly  in  accord 
with  Turkish  ideas  of  justice.  Lord  Rosebery,  upon 
reviewing  the  case,  declared  that  "  all  the  evidence 
which  has  come  to  us  from  impartial  British  officials  in 
Asia  Minor,  from  the  neighborhood  of  Angora,  made 
it  perfectly  clear  that  the  trial  was  not  a  fair  trial  ;  that 
the  evidence  of  the  prisoners  did  not  receive  sufficient 
weight  even  when  it  was  admitted." 

While  on  appeal  the  death  sentences  were  confirmed, 
yet  the  rank  and  the  influence  of  the  professors  had  a 
useful  result  in  making  their  case  known  in  Europe. 
Professor  Thoumaian  was  an  alumnus  of  Luzern  Uni- 
versity, and  his  wife,  a  high-bred  and  accomplished 
Swiss  lady,  was  in  Europe  at  the  time.  She,  with  the 
assistance  of  friends,  aroused  popular  sentiment  in 
England,  and,  finally,  in  spite  of  the  verdict  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  secured  the  release  of  these  two 
gentlemen  on  condition  of  their  leaving  the  country. 

The  circumstances  attending  the  trial  fill  one  with 
indignation.  Not  only  were  all  sorts  of  insults  hurled 
at  the  professors  by  petty  officials,  but  over  twenty 
forms  of  diabolical  torture  were  employed  to  extort 
confessions  incriminating  the  victims  and  their  friends. 
Even  before  their  trial  the  learned  gentlemen  were 
subjected  to  indignities  in  every  respect  similar  to 
the  treatment  of  convicts  of  the  lowest  order,  and 
were  so  heavily  loaded  with  fetters  as  to  be  utterly 
unable  to  walk. 

In  the  summer  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  Turkish 
Empire  was    verging  upon  anarchy.      The    Christian 


362  THE    TURK    AND    THE    LAND    OF    HAIG. 

subjects  throughout  the  country  were  exposed  to  the 
most  atrocious  treatment  by  the  officials.  Taxes  were 
levied  so  heavily  that  their  collection  caused  unbearable 
hardships  to  the  already  impoverished  people.  Armeni- 
ans everywhere  were  thrust  into  prison,  and,  notwith- 
standinor  the  Turkish  law  that  no  tortures  shall  be 
inflicted  on  prisoners,  they  were  subjected  to  inhumani- 
ties of  a  diabolical  nature.  Many  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  were  driven  away,  imprisoned,  or  banished. 
This  has  been  the  fate  of  the  Protestant  pastors  in 
Marsovan  ;  everyone  that  came  was  driven  away,  and 
there  is  now  no  regular  minister  there.  One  of  them, 
the  Rev.  G.  H.  Filian,  barely  escaped  with  his  life  to 
the  United  States.  The  Protestant  pastors  at  Sungurlu 
and  Yuzgat  were  driven  away,  and  those  at  Chakmak 
and  Gemerek  were  imprisoned  for  no  charge  whatever 
but  preaching  upon  religious  themes.  Many  Christian 
ministers  whom  I  knew  and  loved  while  at  home 
are  to-day  silent  for  ever  ;  yet  their  example  of  martyr- 
dom in  testimony  of  Christ  Jesus  speaks  even  louder 
than  their  most  fervent  words  of  loyalty  to  Him. 

SUMMARY    OF    CAUSES    OF    MASSACRES. 

Before  entering  upon  the  next  chapter,  on  the 
Armenian  Massacres,  I  shall  endeavor  to  give  a  sum- 
mary of  the  causes  which  have  brought  about  the 
crisis. 

The  first  cause  that  I  can  assign  to  the  tragedies  is 
the  religious  antipathy  of  the  Mohammedan  Turks, 
who  are  taught  to  slaughter  all  opposed  to  their  faith, 
and  in  whose  brutal  vocabulary  "  dog  "  is  a  synonym 


THE   CHRONIC    CONDITION   OF   ARMENIA.  363 

for  "  Christian."  Upon  this  cause  I  have  dwelt  at 
length   in    the  chapter  on   Mohammedanism. 

The  second  cause  is  the  racial  antipathy.  Turkey 
is  not  made  up  of  Turks  only,  but  its  subjects  are  of 
diverse  races,  religions,  and  ideas.  The  Turks  have 
failed  in  commingling  these  different  races,  as  the 
ancient  Romans  failed  in  commingling  different  races 
into  one  homogeneous  nation.  Therefore,  these  dif- 
ferent elements  have  been  at  war,  and  have  each  main- 
tained different  degrees  of  civilization,  different  modes 
of  thinking,  and  different  occupations  in  life ;  so 
that  each  people  retains  its  national  characteristics, 
manners,  and  customs.  And  it  has  been  the  method  of 
the  dominant  race,  the  Turks,  to  secure  homogeneity 
as  it  has  always  tried  to  secure  uniformity  in  religion, 
by  the  edge  of  the  sword  instead  of  by  employing  the 
peaceful  agencies  of  civilization. 

The  third  cause  is  European  diplomacy.  The  vexa- 
tious intervention  of  the  Powers  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Turks,  instead  of  healing  up  the  difference  between 
them  and  the  Armenians,  has  acjorravated  it.  The 
conscienceless  shrewdness  of  the  Sultan  has  noted  the 
cowardice  and  perfidy  of  the  European  governments, 
and  he  has  made  them  dance  to  any  tune  he  chose 
to   play. 

The  fourth  cause  is  that  the  Armenians  have  im- 
bibed the  spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  so  have 
outstripped  the  Turks  in  civilization  and  intelligence. 
The  advancement  of  our  people  in  learning,  science, 
and  commerce  has  aroused  the  jealousy  of  the  Turks, 
who  have  always  stood  for  the  old  regime — in  other 
words,   for   stagnation.     The    Turks   grow    more    and 


364        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

more  intolerant  of  the  Armenians,  on  account  of  their 
supremacy  in  the  march  of  civiHzation.  All  methods 
to  pull  the  Armenians  down  to  their  own  level  having 
failed,  they  have  resorted  to  the  summary  process  of 
cutting  their  throats. 

The  last,  yet  not  the  least,  cause  of  the  Armenian 
outracres,  is  in  the  well-founded  consciousness  of  the 
Turks  that  Anatolia  will  be  their  last  refuire  when 
they  are  driven  out  of  Europe  and  their  possessions  are 
taken  from  them  by  the  Powers  ;  and  they  are  anxious 
to  have  this  last  resort  free  from  complications  of 
Armenian  claims.  In  order  to  attain  this  desired  end, 
they  have  set  out  to  diminish  the  number  of  the 
Armenians  by  wholesale  massacres,  and  are  invoking 
Mohammedan  bigotry  and  fanaticism  in  the  work  of 
extermination. 

The  Turkish  version  of  the  causes  of  this  reign  of 
terror  throws  all  the  blame  upon  the  Armenians, 
of  course.  They  endeavor  to  pose  before  the  world 
as  being  desirous  to  preserve  the  peace.  The  Sultan 
at  first  with  unruffled  nerve  denied  the  entire  affair  of 
the  Sassoun  massacre  ;  and  when  it  had  been  too  well 
authenticated  to  be  denied,  he  came  boldly  forward 
and  laid  all  the  blame  upon  the  Armenian  revolu- 
tionists as  a  justification  for  his  cruelty.  I  do  not 
deny  the  existence  and  the  active  propagandism  of 
such  a  movement.  I  do  not  even  deny  that,  to  some 
extent,  the  religious  war  has  been  stimulated  by 
Armenian  political  agitators.  But  I  contend  that 
such  a  movement,  though  hostile  to  the  existing 
administration,  was  intertwined  with  the  growth  of 
governmental   oppression  ;  and  that  some  Armenians, 


366        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

driven  by  long"  years  of  Turkisli  barbarity  and  cruel 
misgovernment  into  a  frame  of  mind  akin  to  nihilism, 
have  made  it  their  patriotic  duty  to  preach  the  policy 
of  insurrection  as  the  only  means  of  calling  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Powers  to  their  grievances  and  urging 
them  to  fulfill  their  promises  of  decent  government  in 
Armenia.  Moreover,  while  there  have  been  at  times 
overt  acts  on  the  part  of  the  Huntchagian  revolu- 
tionists, for  some  of  which  they  deserve  our  con- 
demnation ;  yet  the  extent  to  which  they  have 
succeeded  in  stirring  up  actual  revolution  has  been 
grossly  exaggerated  by  the  Turkish  government.  I 
consider  it  cruelly  absurd  to  point  out  the  few 
smoldering  fires  of  revolution  as  if  they  were  charac- 
teristic of  the  whole  nation.  The  Huntchagian  move- 
ment is  not  and  never  has  been  a  national  movement ; 
its  membership  is  small  ;  and  for  its  acts,  whether  wise 
or  otherwise,  none  but  the  society  should  be  held 
accountable.  To  make  a  sweeping  condemnation  of 
the  whole  race,  and  deliberately  bend  every  energy 
upon  their  extirmination  for  the  deeds  of  a  few  hand- 
fuls  of  revolutionists,  is  one  of  the  manifestations  of  the 
Turkish  sense  of  justice.  Yet  the  Turk  must  have 
pretexts,  and  throughout  his  barbarous  career  he  has 
never  been  lackincr  in  the  fine  art  of  their  manufacture. 
In  Constantinople,  for  instance,  took  place  one  of 
the  most  inexcusable  of  the  butcheries  that  horrified  the 
civilized  world  in  the  fall  of  1896.  Some  twenty-four 
Armenians  from  abroad  had  seized  the  Ottoman 
National  Bank  and  had  insisted  upon  holding  it  until 
the  Sultan  should  grant  their  demands  :  To  execute  the 
promised     Reform    Scheme    under    European    super- 


368  THE   TURK    AND   THE    LAND   OF    HAIG. 

vision  ;  that  there  be  no  massacres  in  the  city  on 
account  of  the  outbreak ;  that  the  members  of  the 
party  in  possession  of  the  bank  be  given  safe-con- 
duct out  of  the  empire,  and  that,  pending  negotiations, 
the  troops  be  withdrawn  from  the  vicinity  of  the  bank. 
In  case  of  tlie  Sultan's  refusal  of  these  conditions,  the 
Armenians  threatened  to  blow  up  the  bank,  with  them- 
selves and  the  whole  staff  of  the  establishment.  The 
Sultan  not  only  allowed  them  safe-conduct  out  of 
the  country  after  their  exploit,  but  he  furnished 
each  of  them  with  a  considerable  sum  of  money  when 
they  were  put  on  board  for  France.  Before  they  had 
made  their  triumphant  exit  from  the  bank,  how^ever, 
thousands  of  innocent  Armenians  in  the  city,  who  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  revolutionary  exploits, — who 
did  not  even  have  any  knowledge  of  what  had  hap- 
pened,— were  brutally  battered  to  pieces  with  heavy 
clubs.  Hatl  the  Turkish  i^overnment  held  down  the 
mob,  and  had  it  taken  the  bank  by  storm,  limiting 
vengeance  to  those  actually  engaged  in  anarchical 
proceedings,  it  would  have  been  justified  in  the 
eyes  of  Europe.  This  is  representative  of  many  of  the 
cases  in  which  the  Armenians  are  held  by  unscrupulous 
defenders  of  the  Sultan  to  be  ajjofressors.  In  most  of 
the  massacres  the  Turks  took  the  initiative  without 
having  the  least  pretext  for  their  unspeakable 
barbarities. 

The  Armenians,  brave  and  patriotic  as  they  are,  are 
utterly  unable  to  throw  off  the  Turkish  yoke  by  them- 
selves. A  general  rising  of  our  people  against  the 
Turks,  such  as  took  place  among  the  Slavonian  Chris- 
tians,— Servians,  Bulgarians,  Roumanians,  and  Greeks, 


THE   CHRONIC    CONDITION   OF   ARMENIA.  369 

— is  impossible.  Our  people  are  neither  armed  nor 
disciplined,  nor  organized  to  proclaim  rebellion  and 
openly  stand  the  chances  of  a  civil  war.  For,  in  the 
first  place,  the  Turks  greatly  outnumber  us;  and,  in 
the  second  place,  we  are  not  confined  to  a  certain 
locality  like  the  Bulgarians  and  others,  but  are  helplessly 
scattered  over  the  Ottoman  Empire — in  fact,  overall  the 
world.  The  Slavonian  Christians  succeeded,  because 
not  only  were  they  concentrated  in  a  certain  territory, 
but  they  had  more  or  less  support  from  their  European 
co-religionists.  Our  people  have  no  co-religionists  in 
Europe,  and  we  have  not  the  hope  of  Europe's  inter- 
vention on  our  behalf.  So  our  unhappy  countrymen 
are  left  to  their  fate,  helpless  and  hopeless. 


THE  TURKISH  CAMPAIGN  OF  BUTCHERY. 


"Caliph,  I  did  thee  wrong.      I  hailed  thee  late 
Abdul  the  Damned,  and  would  recall  my  word. 
It  merged  thee  with  the  unillustrious  herd 
Who  crowd  the  approaches  to  the  infernal  gate, 
Spirits  gregarious,  equal  in  their  state, 
As  is  the  innumerable  ocean  bird, 
Gannet  or  gull,  whose  wandering  plaint  is  heard 
On  Ailsa  or  lona  desolate; 
For  in  a  world  where  cruel  deeds  abound 
The  merely  damned  are  legion.      With  such  souls 
Is  not  each  hollow  and  cranny  of  Tophet  crammed? 
Thou  with  the  brightest  of  hell's  aureoles 
Dost  shine  supreme,  incomparably  crowned, 
Immortally  beyond  all  mortals  damned." 

— William  Watson. 

ly^  Y  reader  may  now  turn  to  Sassoun,  where,  as  the 
^'^^  initiative  of  a  long  series  of  massacres,  took 
place  the  most  outrageous  of  Turkish  atrocities,  in 
September,  1894. 

The  Sassoun  region,  situated  south  of  the  Moush 
Plain,  forms  a  part  of  the  long  line  of  terraces  in 
which  the  Armenian  plateau  descends  gradually  to  the 
valleys  tlirough  which  flow  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphra- 
tes, moistening  the  soil,  waterincr  the  trees,  and 
nourishing  flowers  of  rare  beauty  and  perfume.  The 
entire  region  has  been  for  centuries  an  earthly  paradise, 

370 


THE   TURKISH    CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  37I 

blessed  with  rich  harvests,  romantic  scenery,  and  a 
healthy  cHniate.  Its  inhabitants  were  mainly  composed 
of  Armenian  peasants,  who  peaceably  dwelt  in  the  fair 
valleys  of  their  ancient  fatherland,  while  the  Kurdish 
nomads  infested  the  high  plateaus  above.  Until  a  few 
years  ago  the  Kurds  were  unorganized  brigands;  but, 
as  we  have  intimated  in  the  preceding  chapter,  the 
Sultan  has  organized  them  into  an  irregular  army, 
partly  in  order  to  exterminate  the  Armenians,  and 
partly,  in  case  of  war  with  Russia,  that  they  may  act 
as  a  counter-weight  to  the  Cossacks.  Of  late  years  the 
Armenians  have  practically  become  serfs  of  the  local 
Kurdish  aghas.  in  addition  to  the  oppressive  taxes 
imposed  by  the  government,  the  Kurdish  chiefs  went 
from  village  to  village  and  claimed  their  own  share  of 
the  tribute.  No  sooner  had  one  chief  departed  than 
another  arrived  with  fire  and  sword.  Some  villages 
have  been  thus  visited  from  eight  to  ten  times  in  quick 
succession  in  the  course  of  a  year. 

To  whom  could  our  unhappy  people  appeal  for  pro- 
tection and  redress,  when  they  were  not  permitted  to 
have  even  a  penknife  for  self-defense  against  those  who 
came  upon  them  armed  with  the  best  modern  weapons 
and  supported  by  governmental  protection  ?  Where 
could  Armenians  turn,  when  they  were  thus  tied  hand 
and  foot  and  thrown  like  lambs  into  the  midst  of  de- 
vouring wolves  ?  The  insecurity  of  life  and  property 
became  so  great  that  many  Armenians  deserted  their 
homes  and  property,  and  fled  to  the  Russian  frontiers 
in  search  of  new  abodes  within  the  borders  of  the 
Czar's  domain. 

Early  in   the    spring  of   1893  matters  were   hasten- 


372  THE   TURK   AND    THE    LAND    OF   HAIG. 

ing"  to  a  crisis.  The  Armenians  of  the  Sassoun  dis- 
trict, who  were  perhaps  the  most  oppressed  in  the 
southeastern  provinces,  finally  lost  their  patience  ;  and 
when  the  Kurds  made  their  usual  visit,  with  laro-er  de- 
mands  and  bolder  depredations,  the  Armenians  of  Dal- 
vorig  banded  together  and  offered  a  stout  and 
determined  resistance.  Preliminary  skirmishes  were 
followed  by  a  general  attack.  The  united  Kurdish 
tribes  of  Pakrantzik,  Khiyantzig,  and  Badnktzik  made 
up  an  army  of  about  seven  thousand  men,  and  at- 
tacked a  mere  handful  of  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty  Armenians  of  Dalvorig,  who  were  gathered  in 
defense  of  their  rights.  Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  the 
superior  position  of  the  Armenians  behind  the  rocks  of 
Turfurkar,  coupled  with  their  indomitable  courage, 
made  them  more  than  a  match  for  their  adversaries  ;  for 
only  six  Armenians  fell,  while  over  a  hundred  Kurds 
were  slain.  Such  an  unlooked-for  result  so  disheart- 
ened the  Kurds  that  they  retreated,  and  perhaps 
would  never  again  have  lifted  their  hands  to  strike  the 
brave  Armenians  of  Dalvorig,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
Turkish  government,  which  at  this  point  hastened  to 
the  support  and  defense  of  the  Kurds.  The  gov- 
ernor general  of  the  province  set  out  with  his  regular 
troops  and  field-pieces,  and  occupied  the  region  about 
Dalvorig,  but  made  no  attack  at  the  time.  In  an  in- 
terview with  some  of  the  leading  Armenians  he 
questioned  them  as  to  why  they  did  not  submit  to 
the  government  and  pay  their  taxes.  To  this  the 
Armenians  replied  that  they  were  not  disloyal  to  the 
government,  but  that  they  could  not  pay  taxes  both 
to  the  Kurds  and  to  the  government,  and  that  if  the 


MOSLEM    ROBBERS    DIVIDING    SPOILS. 
(^From  a  Painting.') 


374        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

government  would  afford  them  protection  they  would 
not  decHne  to  pay  the  taxes. 

The  siege  continued  throughout  the  winter.  Upon 
the  advent  of  the  spring  of  1894  the  Kurdish  tribes 
were  ordered  to  attack  the  entire  Sassoun  district, 
which  included  over  forty  vilhiges.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  they  responded,  coming,  to  the  number  of 
twenty  thousand,  from  every  direction.  In  a  few  pre- 
liminary skirmishes  several  Kurds  fell.  The  Kurds 
secured  the  bodies  of  two  of  their  slain  countrymen, 
and,  after  mutilating  the  corpses,  carried  them  to  the 
headquarters  of  the  provincial  government  at  Bitlis 
and  showed  them  to  the  vali.  "  See  what  the 
Christians  are  doing  to  us  !  "  they  exclaimed,  meanwhile 
reporting  that  the  entire  province  was  in  armed  revolu- 
tion. The  local  government  of  Moush  telegraphed 
the  Sultan  of  the  alleged  uprising  of  the  Armenians. 
The  Porte,  only  too  glad  of  such  a  pretext,  ordered 
the  military  commander  of  that  province  to  "exter- 
minate the  rebels."  Soon  re-enforcements  arrived,  and 
a  general  attack  followed. 

The  Armenians,  ignorant  of  the  presence  of  the 
regular  troops,  who  were  kept  out  of  sight,  and  think- 
ing they  had  only  the  Kurds  to  contend  with,  fought 
gallantly,  and  held  them  back  for  nearl)-  two  weeks. 
During  this  time  the  characteristic  perfidy  and  cunning 
of  the  I  urkish  soldiers  sometimes  deceived  even  the 
Armenians  themselves.  Once  they  came  into  a  village, 
and,  having  assured  the  inhabitants  that  they  had  come 
to  guard. them  against  the  Kurds,  were  quartered  in 
Armenian  homes.  At  night,  when  the  people  had  retired, 
these  alleged  protectors  arose  and  fell  upon  the  house- 


THE   TURKISH    CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  375 

holds  of  their  hosts,  slaying  every  man,  woman,  and 
child.  It  was  this  event  that  made  it  no  longer 
possible  for  the  Armenians  to  doubt  that  the  govern- 
ment and  its  forces  were  back  of  the  Kurds,  and  that 
consequently  their  own  doom  was  sealed. 

The  Armenians  fought  with  the  energy  of  despair, 
and  the  Kurds,  after  repeated  repulses,  refused  to  do 
any  more  unless  the  soldiers  aided  them.  Then  began 
a  general  massacre,  of  almost  incredible  ferocity, 
lasting  from  the  middle  of  August  to  the  middle  of 
September,  1894.  The  Sultan's  firrjtan  orderintr  the 
butchery  of  the  Armenians  was  read  to  the  soldiers  by 
the  commanding  marshal,  Zekki  Pasha.  .  The  im- 
perial edict  commanded  them  to  exterminate  the 
Christians.  Before  the  reading  was  completed,  as  if 
unwilling  to  delay  the  diabolical  deed,  Zekki  Pasha 
gave  the  order  to  "smite"  the  Christians.  Then  fol- 
lowed a  scene  too  awful  to  describe.  The  brutal 
officer  issued  commands  to  the  troops  of  such  a  nature 
that  some  of  the  better  among  them,  recoiling  from 
perpetrating  outrages  on  unarmed  and  helpless  men, 
women,  and  children,  begged  that  they  be  not  com- 
pelled to  carry  them  out. 

On  the  last  day  of  August,  that  being  the  anni- 
versary of  the  Sultan's  accession  to  the  throne,  the 
duty  of  loyalty  was  again  impressed  upon  the  minds  of 
the  Turkish  soldiers,  and  the  indiscriminate  slaughter 
of  the  Armenians  they  were  taught  to  regard  as  a 
supreme  privilege.  There  was  no  line  drawn  between 
"  loyal  "  and  so-called  "  disloyal  "  villages.  "  Down  with 
the  Christian  dogs  !  "  was  the  watchword  that  rang  out 
from  Moslem  throats  and  resounded  with  the  boom  of 


37^        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

their  cannon.  The  air  was  filled  with  one  great  wail  of 
anguish;  the  earth  was  all  aflame  with  burning  villages. 
Nor  was  the  ferocity  of  the  Turk  satisfied  until  all  the 
villages  of  Sassoun  were  utterly  obliterated  and  the 
last  man,  woman,  and  child  had  paid  the  penalty  for 
the  alleged  uprising  against  the  Turkish  government! 

It  is  hard  to  select  specific  instances  from  such  an 
inferno  of  cruelty,  but  let  me  mention  the  following 
cases,  the  truth  of  which  is  based  upon  uncontradicted 
reports  of  those  on  the  ground  : 

In  one  place  about  fifty  women  and  girls  were 
locked  in  a  church,  and  then  the  commander  set 
the  soldiers  "  free  "  amonof  them,  and  when  ravishincr 
ceased  they  were  all  killed.  In  another  ])lace  children 
were  stood  u\)  in  a  row  in  single  file,  and  then  a  test 
was  made  as  to  how  many  little  bodies  the  leaden 
bullet  of  a  Turkish  rifle  could  tear  through  in  its 
deadly  flight.  The  soldiers  would  toss  infants  up  into 
the  air,  and  catch  them  upon  their  bayonets  when  they 
came  down.  Babes  were  laid  in  a  row  before  the  eyes 
of  their  mothers,  and  then,  with  a  mighty  stroke  of 
a  Turkish  sword,  their  heads  were  severed  from  their 
bodies.  Agfain,  men,  women,  and  children  were 
crowded  into  houses  and  the  houses  set  on  fire,  their 
attempts  to  escape  the  flames  being  defeated  by 
bayonets. 

It  would  be  a  o-rewsome  tale  to  relate  the  shockine 
cruelties  perpetrated  upon  women.  I  have  seen  of 
late  some  Armenian  refugees  from  near  the  Sassoun 
region,  and  their  accounts  of  Turkish  inhumanity 
sounded  to  me  like  the  echoes  from  the  barbaric  past 
and  filled  every  fiber  of  my  being  with  infinite  wrath. 


THE   TURKISH    CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  377 

As  I  go  in  thought  from  village  to  village,  and  look 
upon  the  ravines  filled  with  corpses  of  Armenian 
heroines  and  martyrs  ;  as  I  hear  the  pitiful  entreaties 
of  helpless  womanhood  and  childhood,  trembling 
before  uplifted  daggers ;  as  I  gaze  upon  the  frantic 
faces  of  fathers  and  mothers  as  they  behold  their 
infants  pierced  by  Turkish  bayonets  ;  as  I  see 
widowed  motherhood  with  frozen  tears  seekingr  shelter 
amid  the  ruins  of  desolation,  my  heart  cries,  "  How 
long,  O  Lord,  how  long!" 

Some  Turkish  devices  of  hellish  wickedness  my 
regard  for  decency  and  for  the  conventionalities  of 
civilized  speech  will  not  permit  me  to  relate.  Indeed, 
the  English  language  is  impotent  for  the  task. 

In  this  massacre  it  is  believed  that  ten  thousand 
Armenians  perished,  though  it  is  difficult  to  obtain 
even  an  approximately  correct  estimate  of  the  slain. 
The  Sultan,  in  spite  of  his  denial  of  the  entire  affair, 
at  once  sent  one  of  the  imperial  guards  to  carry  a 
decoration  to  Zekki  Pasha  for  his  so-called  bravery  and 
his  success  in  the  work  at  Sassoun,  while  another  envoy 
carried  four  banners  to  the  four  leading  Kurdish  chiefs 
who  were  associated  with  the  military  commander  in 
the  massacre  and  who  were  the  instigators  of  it. 
Meanwhile  the  I'urkish  ofovernment  made  strenuous 
efforts  to  suppress  all  accounts  from  the  scenes  of 
murder  and  rapine.  What  could  not  be  concealed  was 
represented  in  a  light  very  different  from  actual  facts. 
The  magnates  near  the  scene  of  carnage  prepared  a 
document,  which  they  endeavored  to  compel  Chris- 
tians to  sign^  purporting  to  give  the  judgment  of  the 
people  that  the  thousands  killed  in  the  Sassoun  region 


378        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

met  death  as  their  just  deserts,  and  expressing  thanks 
to  the  Stdtan  and  his  officials  for  their  acts. 


SUBSEQUENT    EVENTS,    AND    THE    MASSACRE    AT 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 

Owing  to  the  report  of  the  massacre  at  Sassoun, 
wiiich  found  its  way  to  all  parts  of  Europe,  causing  a 
thrill  of  horror  and  a  storm  of  indignation,  investiga- 
tions were  made  by  Mr.  Hallward,  the  British  consul 
at  Van,  and  by  the  British  Ambassador  at  Constan- 
tinople. When  to  their  confirmation  of  the  reports 
was  added  the  admission  of  the  local  military  com- 
mander, Great  Britain  informed  the  Porte  that  better 
government  was  necessary  in  the  eastern  part  of  his 
dominion  or  steps  would  be  taken  to  effect  the  im- 
provement independently.  The  Sultan's  fear  of 
external  interference  aroused  him  to  at  least  a  show 
of  action.  He  appointed  a  commission  to  inquire  into 
the  massacre  and  propose  a  means  for  restoring  quiet. 
That  he  intended  this  commission  to  accomplish 
nothing  except  the  distortion  of  the  facts  was 
apparent  from  the  men  he  chose  to  compose  it.  They 
had  the  confidence  of  none  of  the  European  Powers. 
The  bestowal  of  a  decoration  upon  the  Turkish  com- 
mander in  charo;e  at  Sassoun  served  to  increase  the 
doubts  of  the  Powers  as  to  the  Porte's  sincerity  of 
purpose  in  creating  the  commission.  The  Powers 
then  began  to  talk  of  a  separate  representative  com- 
mission of  inquiry  to  act  independently  of  the  Turkish 
commission.  Americans  were  invited  to  representa- 
tion in  the  latter  commission,  but  President  Cleveland 


THE   TURKISH    CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  379 

declined  the  invitation.  He  signified,  however,  the 
wilHngness  of  the  United  States  to  conduct  an 
individual  investigation  and  selected,  after  consulta- 
tion with  England,  Consul  Jewett  of  Sivas.  The 
Porte  did  not  consent  to  this  and  refused  to  grant  the 
necessary  papers  to  the  consul. 

In  mid-winter,  when  the  weather  in  that  portion   of 
Armenia  where  the  tragedies  occurred  is  exceedingly 
severe,    the    commission     began     its    work,    and    was 
shortly  established  at   Moush.     The  Turkish  soldiers 
extorted. money  from  the  Armenians  in  the  vicinity  by 
threatening  to  report  them  to  that  body  as  insurgents, 
while  the  Turkish  officers   threatened  the  Armenians 
with    death    if    they   exposed    the  tragedies    that    had 
occurred   in    their    midst.      Nor  did    this    exhaust    the 
methods  of  Turkish  ingenuity  to  cover  up  the  facts. 
Many    prominent    Armenians,     including    clergymen, 
were  thrust  into  prison  without  just  cause  or  explana- 
tion, and  were  frequently  kept  in  chains  and  tortures 
without    trial  ;    and    even    when    their    innocence    was 
established   they  were  not  acquitted.      These  Turkish 
prisons,   particularly    the   one    at    Bitlis,    where    many 
Armenians  were  confined,  may  well  be  described  as  an 
earthly  hell.      Indeed,  no  human  imagination  can  grasp 
the    horrors    to    which    Christians    were    subjected    in 
these    noisome    dungeons.       I    have    seen    many    Ar- 
menian    refugees,    and     their    descriptions    of    these 
places  sent  a  chill  of  horror  through  my  veins.     The 
tearing  of  flesh,  crushing  of  limbs,  rending  of  sinews, 
brandings  with  red-hot  iron,  and  all  manner  of  lingering 
tortures   surpassed  in  fiendishness  the  darkest  ages  of 
the   Inquisition.      The  dreary  walls  of  the  Bitlis  prison 


380        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

echoed  day  and  night  with  wails  of  anguish  from 
victims  herded  together  in  a  common  cell  in  the  midst 
of  filth  and  disease.  Death  would  be  a  mercy  com- 
pared with  such  maddening  torments. 

Dr.  E.  J.  Dillon,  the  special  English  commissioner 
of  the  Daily  Telegraph,  who  spent  some  time  on 
the  ground  and  made  himself  master  of  the  facts,  fully 
corroborates  the  reports  of  the  refugees  in  an  article 
in  the  Contemporary  Review  for  August,  1895.  In 
that  article,  entitled  "The  Condition  of  Armenia,"  he 
thus  describes  the  Turkish  Prison  :  "  If  the  old  Eng- 
lish Star  Chamber,  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  a 
Chinese  opium  den,  the  ward  of  a  yellow  fever 
hospital,  and  a  nook  in  the  lowest  depths  of  Dante's 
hell  be  conceived  as  blended  and  merged  into  one, 
the  resulting  picture  will  somewhat  resemble  a  bad 
Turkish  prison." 

The  commission  at  Moush,  however,  was  making 
progress,  and  its  report  of  the  situation  was  such  as  to 
confirm  the  worst  description,  and  the  most  heinous 
details  were  found  to  be  abundantly  verified.  Vice 
Consul  Shipley,  the  representative  of  Great  Britain 
on  the  commission  of  inquiry,  reported  in  a  conserv- 
ative and  moderate  tone  : 

We  [Messrs.  Vilbert,  Shipley,  and  Prjevalsky,  the  representa- 
tives of  France,  England,  and  Russia]  have,  in  our  report,  given 
it  as  our  conviction,  arrived  at  from  the  evidence  brought  before 
us,  tiiat  the  Armenians  were  massacred  without  distinction  of  age 
or  sex;  and,  indeed,  for  a  period  of  some  three  weeks,  viz.,  from 
the  i2th  of  August  to  the  4th  of  September  (O.  S.),  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  the  Armenians  were  absolutely  hunted  like  wild 
beasts,  being  killed  wherever  they  were  met;  and  if  the  slaughter 
was  not  greater,  it  was,  we  believe,  solely  owing  to  the  vastness  of 


THE   TURKISH    CAMPAIGN    OF   BUTCHERY.  38 1 

the  mountain  ranges  of  that  district,  which  enabled  the  people  to 
scatter,  and  so  facilitated  their  escape.  In  fact,  and  speaking 
with  a  full  sense  of  responsibility,  we  are  compelled  to  say  that  the 
conviction  has  forced  itself  upon  us  that  it  was  not  so  much  the 
capture  of  the  agitator  Mourad,  or  the  suppression  of  a  pseudo- 
revolt,  which  was  desired  by  the  Turkish  authorities,  as  the 
extermination,  pure  and  simple,  of  the  Gheliguzan  and  Talori 
districts."  * 

It  was  apparent  to  the  Sultan  that  the  moral  sensi- 
bilities of  the  Christian  Powers  had  been  so  outraged 
that  the  nations  were  on  the  verge  of  ago-ressive 
action.  The  English  government  emphatically  an- 
nounced its  intention  to  afford  protection  to  all  Chris- 
tians throughout  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  result  of 
this  was  a  (ew  transitory  reforms  with  which  the 
Sultan  hoped  to  appease  the  Christian  governments. 
He  caused  the  release  of  many  imprisoned  clergymen, 
and  highly  incompetent  Turkish  officials  were  relieved 
from  office.  Meanwhile  Great  Britain,  France,  and 
Russia  in  a  joint  note  informed  the  Porte  that  certain 
reforms  must  be  carried  out,  with  the  following  pro- 
visions : 

A  high  commissioner,  appointed  with  the  assent  of  the  Pow- 
ers, is  to  have  general  supervision  over  the  whole  empire,  with 
the  assistance  of  a  commission  sitting  in  Constantinople;  the 
provinces  of  eastern  Turkey  are  to  have  Mohammedan  or  Chris- 
tian governors,  according  to  the  preponderance  of  population,  the 
vice  governor  to  be  of  different  faith  from  the  governor;  taxes 
are  to  be  collected  by  local  and  municipal  agents  instead  of  by 
soldiers  or  treasury  agents,  and  the  provinces  are  to  retain 
enough  funds  for  their  administration  and  send  the  balance  to 
Constantinople;  there  is  to  be  a  general  amnesty  for  crimes  and 
*"Blue  Book,"  Turkey.  1895.  No.  1,  Part  I.,  p.  206. 


382  THE   TURK   AND    THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

offenses  other  than  those  against  the  common  law;  pending 
poHtical  trials  are  to  stop  and  the  prisoners  are  to  be  released; 
imprisonment  without  special  warrant  is  forbidden  and  speedy 
trial  assured,  together  with  release  in  case  of  acquittal;  the 
number  of  Christian  judges  is  to  be  increased  in  proportion  to 
the  Christian  population;  Christians  are  to  serve  equally  with 
Moslems  in  the  gendarmerie;  conversion  to  Islam  by  force  is  for- 
bidden, and  general  freedom  of  religious  confession  is  to  be 
secured;  the  powers  of  magistrates  are  to  be  extended,  and  the 
local  courts  are  to  be  under  the  supervision  of  a  delegation  from 
the  Court  of  Appeals. 

These  proposed  reforms  would  render  Armenia 
practically  independent,  and  differ  very  little  from  the 
demands  made  by  Russia  in  1876  on  behalf  of  Bul- 
garia, which  led  to  the  Russo-Turkish  War.  The 
Sultan  knew  that  the  difficulties  which  beset  him  were 
great,  and  he  at  once  altered  the  ministry  and 
appointed  an  intensely  anti-English  Grand  Vizier. 
Meanwhile  the  president  of  the  commission  to  investi- 
gate the  Sassoun  massacres  was  made  the  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs.  Under  such  conditions  there  was  a 
manifest  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  the  Turkish 
government  to  comply  with  the  reforms  as  suggested 
by  the  Powers. 

Of  all  the  Powers,  England  was  apparently  the  most 
firm  in  its  demands  for  immediate  adoption  of  the 
measures.  The  Sultan  hesitated  much.  His  Moham- 
medan subjects  opposed  every  letter  of  the  Euro- 
pean proposals.  At  this  critical  point  the  Libei-al 
Party  of  England  was  overthrown  and  the  Con- 
servative placed  in  power.  The  policy  of  the  latter 
party  toward  Turkey  had  always  been  aggressive,  and 
many  hopes  were  built  upon  its  being  true  to  its  tradi- 


Signor  A.  Pansa,  Italy.  Mons.  Nelidoff,  Russia. 

Mons.  P.  Cambon,  Baron  Calice,  Prince  Radolin,  Sir  Philip  Ciirrie, 

France.  A uslro  Hungary.  Germany.  Gre.nt  liritain. 

THE   AMBASSADORS   OK    iHE   GREAT    POWERS   AT   CONSTANTINOPLE, 


384        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

tions.  Even  the  Sultan  became  alarmed  at  the  acces- 
sion of  the  new  party  and  felt  that  he  was  at  least  in  a 
position  where  he  could  no  longer  trifle  with  the 
demands  of  Europe.  He  straightway  promised  to 
effect  the  reforms,  demanding,  however,  an  extension 
of  time.  This  apparent  concession  to  foreign  pressure 
greatly  incensed  the  Turks,  whose  sense  of  national 
dignity  was  wounded,  and  they  threatened  the  Sultan 
with  a  Moslem  insurrection.  Particularly  the  Young 
Turkey  Party  were  very  active  in  their  expressions  of 
hostility  against  the  existing  administration  ;  for  they 
had  come  to  the  conviction  that  it  was  not  the  Chris- 
tians alone  who  suffered,  but  that  their  Moslem  brethren 
also  were  victims  of  the  Porte's  inefficiency  under  the 
administrative  policy  of  the  Old  Turkey  Party. 

We  must  not  omit  an  event  which  was  of  no  little 
assistance  at  this  time  to  the  Armenian  cause.  On 
December  29,  1894,  the  occasion  of  the  eighty-fifth 
birthday  of  the  late  Mr.  William  E.  Gladstone,  in 
response  to  our  deputation  the  Sage  of  Hawarden 
raised  his  voice  for  justice  in  behalf  of  our  oppressed 
people,  and  denounced  in  the  strongest  possible 
language  the  barbarity  of  the  "  unspeakable  Turk," 
expressing  the  hope  that  the  government  of  the  Queen 
would  do  its  duty  in  establishing  peace  and  justice  in 
Armenia. 

The  Sultan's  insincerity  regarding  reform  was  more 
and  more  impressed  upon  the  Powers,  for  not  only 
did  he  delay  their  practical  application,  but  fresh  out- 
raofes  were  oroinsf  on  as  usual  and  even  to  a  more 
alarming  extent.  England  made  a  naval  demonstra- 
tion at  the  Dardanelles  and  threatened  the  dismember- 


^.-"^ 

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■.■■•        -^         ■  \                                                   ■-:-             -~*S.     .   •• 

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THE   LATE   RT.    HON.    \V.    E.    GLADSTONE,    THE   GREAT   ENGLISH    FRIEND   OK 
THE   ARMENIANS. 


(From  n  Painting.) 


386        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

ment  of  the  Ottoman  Empire;  and  for  a  time  it 
appeared  as  though  the  other  Powers  were  in  accord 
with  Great  Britain's  poHcy  of  employing  coercive 
measures  in  order  to  bring  the  Sultan  to  terms. 
It  was  soon  discovered,  however,  that  the  Powers  had 
agreed  to  disagree.  Even  England  receded  from  her 
advanced  position,  and  the  whole  scheme  of  reforms 
vanished  in  the  air.  The  attitude  of  the  Powers 
reassured  the  Sultan  that  as  loner  as  the  oovernments 
of  Europe  are  divided  among  themselves  he  is  safe  in 
his  position,  and  he  therefore  proceeded  to  indulge  in 
a  massacre  in  Constantinople  itself  before  the  very 
eyes  of  the  European  ambassadors  who  a  short  time 
before  had  been  considering  the  partition  of  Turkey. 

It  is  an  ancient  Turkish  custom,  in  case  of  oppression 
or  national  needs,  to  petition  the  government  for 
redress,  and,  therefore,  on  Monday,  October  i,  1895, 
about  two  hundred  peaceable  Armenians  marched  in  a 
body  to  the  Imperial  Government  offices  to  present  a 
petition  to  the  Sultan,  asking  relief  from  persecutions. 
It  might  appear  a  foolish  thing  for  the  Armenians  to 
do,  considering  the  excited  state  of  feeling  that  pre- 
vailed all  over  the  empire,  and  they  were  advised 
against  their  action  by  our  Patriarch.  Yet  it  is  the 
constitutional  right  of  the  Armenians  to  present  peti- 
tions, and  in  default  of  free  speech  or  a  free  press  it  is 
the  only  mode  of  obtaining  redress  for  grievances.  To 
say  that  they  went  there  to  get  themselves  butchered 
in  order  to  draw  attention  to  their  wrongs  is  against 
reason.  But  the  Turkish  authorities  are  well  versed  in 
the  art  of  giving  a  peaceful  constitutional  proceeding 
like   this  the  appearance  of  a  riot.     The  government 


THE   TURKISH   CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  387 

ordered  the  police  to  disperse  the  Armenian  petitioners. 
In  some  unknown  way  firing  began,  and  after  many  of 
the  petitioners  had  been  killed,  the  homeward  march 
was  broken  up.  The  butchery,  however,  did  not  stop 
here,  but  spread  throughout  the  city  as  enraged  bands 
of  softas  went  from  place  to  place,  clubbing  every 
Armenian  who  appeared  on  the  street.  The  rioting 
continued  over  Tuesday,  and  during  Tuesday  night 
quiet,  peaceful  homes  were  attacked  and  some  eighty 
innocent  people  were  slaughtered  in  cold  blood,  making 
a  total  of  about  three  hundred  victims. 

MASSACRES    AT    TREBIZOND    AND    ERZRUM. 

The  next  scene  of  Armenian  carnage  was  at  Treb- 
izond,  situated  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  Black  Sea, 
and  occupying  a  position  that  formerly  gave  it  much 
commercial  and  political  importance.  It  is  this  city  the 
declining  Christians  of  western  Europe  made  their 
stronghold  in  the  thirteenth  century,  keeping  part  of 
the  northern  coast  of  the  Euxine,  while  the  interior 
was  held  by  the  Turks. 

Owing  to  its  being  a  fortified  stronghold  within  a 
short  distance  of  both  the  Russian  and  Persian  borders, 
all  strangers  at  the  time  were  regarded  with  more  or 
less  suspicion,  particularly  as  the  Turkish  authorities 
were  then  tlioroughly  inflamed  and  were  on  the  look- 
out for  Russo-Armenian  agitators,  who,  they  sup- 
posed, were  smuggling  arms  across  the  frontier.  The 
population  of  the  city  is  about  fifty  thousand,  there  be- 
ing nearly  as  many  Armenians  as  Turks,  with  quite  a 
representation  of  Greeks.     Early  in  October,  1895,  after 


388        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

the  troubles  at  Constantinople,  Bahri  Pasha,  former 
governor  of  Van,  who  had  been  called  to  Constantinople 
in  disgrace,  because  of  pressure  brought  against  the 
Turkish  g-overnment  after  the  Sassoun  massacre,  W43 
assaulted  by  an  Armenian,  who  only  succeeded  in 
slightly  wounding  the  man  he  tried  to  kill,  though  he 
fired  six  shots  from  a  revolver.  Unfortunately,  he 
did  mischief  he  never  intended.  One  shot  wounded  .1 
Turkish  boy,  whodied  the  next  day;  another  wounded 
the  hand  of  the  vali  of  Trebizond,  who  was  in  compan)' 
with  the  disgraced  officer,  while  still  another  struck  an 
Armenian  lad.  The  attack  of  the  would-be  assassin, 
who  escaped,  was  purely  a  personal  matter  and  should 
not  have  had  any  significance  for  Turks  in  general. 
The  latter,  however,  were  ready  and  anxious  to  believe 
that  it  was  the  initial  step  to  an  occurrence  similar  to 
that  at  Constantinople,  and  pretended  that  a  concerted 
move  was  to  be  made  against  them  by  the  Armenians, 
declaring  themselves  to  be  in  fear  of  an  attack.  In  the 
street  at  night  there  were  menacing  demonstrations  by 
the  Turks.  Armed  bands  of  lawless  and  unrestrained 
Moslems  lounged  about  the  corners,  or  with  brandished 
swords  and  frowning  looks  patrolled  the  streets. 

The  European  consuls,  alarmed  at  the  situation,  held 
a  consultation  and  besought  the  governor  to  restrain 
the  leaders  who  incensed  the  people.  He  declared  he 
would  do  what  he  could  to  restore  peace.  The  turbu- 
lence had  seemed  to  subside,  when  on  Monday,  October 
7,  the  son  of  a  leading  Turk  of  the  city  died  from  in- 
juries received  while  in  a  drunken  brawl,  fighting  with 
a  comrade.  The  Turkish  population  was  ready  to  be- 
lieve that  he  had  been  murdered  by  an  Armenian  whom 


THE   TURKISH   CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY. 


389 


he    was    trying    to  place   in  custody.     The  excitement 
became  intense,  and  a   massacre   the  same   night  was 


er    PER.  OF    THE    CHRISTIAN    HERALD,    NEW    YORK. 

AN    ARMENIAN    MASSACRE. 


only  averted  by  a  heavy  fall  of  rain  which  dispersed  the 
mobs. 

The  following  morning,  as  there  was  no  indication 
of  disquiet,  after  a  brief  suspension,  the  Armenians  re- 
opened their  shops  and  resumed  their  daily  occupations. 
At  about  noon  on  October  8,  when  the  streets  of  the 
city  seemed  as  peaceful  as  possible,  a  cannon  was  fired 
somewhere  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  city,  as  the  signal 
of  the  authorities  for  the  massacre  to  commence.  In 
the   twinkling    of    an    eye    the    pent-up    fury    and    en- 


390  THE  TURK    AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

ragred  fanaticism  of  the  Turks  were  let  loose  like  a 
deluge  of  hell.  In  blind  and  unopposed  fury  the 
Moslems  descended  upon  the  unsuspecting  and  unarmed 
Armenians. 

When  the  bloody  violence  was  somewhat  abated  the 
plundering  began.  Doors  and  windows  of  houses  were 
broken  in,  the  better  to  facilitate  the  rapacious  hunt 
for  articles  of  value.  Such  things  as  were  not  desired 
by  the  despoilers  were  ruined  beyond  repair.  The 
actions  of  the  l\irks  seemed  to  indicate  that  they 
were  bei)t  upon  the  utter  annihilation  of  the  Ar- 
menians. Far  from  restraining  the  fiery  Turks,  the 
soldiers  and  police  took  part  in  the  massacre,  and  were 
found  distributed  among  the  murderous  crowds. 

The  next  day  the  Turks  spread  reports  to  the  effect 
that  the  Armenians  from  the  adjoining  village,  thor- 
oughly organized,  were  advancing  to  attack  the  city. 
The  truth  of  the  matter  was  that  the  massacre  was  ex- 
tendine  to  the  village,  thoucjh  the  Turks  endeavored  to 
make  it  appear  that  they  were  qnelHng  an  uprising. 
After  the  massacre  those  Armenians  who  escaped  were 
thrown  into  prison  for  no  cause,  while  perpetrators  of 
the  horrible  outraofes  were  let  loose  to  continue  their 
work  to  their  hearts'  content.  The  wave  of  murder  and 
despoliation  spread  southward  from  Trebizond  along  a 
road  that  had  been  built  to  Erzrum  in  former  years 
with  a  view  to  retaining  the  commercial  importance 
of  Trebizond,  which  was  fading  because  of  the  diver- 
sion of  trade  to  Batoum  after  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  and 
the  occupation  of  Batoum  by  the  Russians.  The  city 
of  Sumushkhane,  famous  for  its  silver  mines,  whence  its 
name,  was  the  first  place  raided.     As  in   most  mining 


THE    COSTUME    OF    A    TURKISH    HIGHWAYMAN. 


392  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND    OF   HAIG. 

towns,  the  population  was  easily  excited  and  quickly 
aroused.  Christians  were  murdered  in  their  places  with 
as  much  heartlessness  as  at  Trebizond,  and  the  town  in 
which  they  lived  was  practically  destroyed.  At  Bai- 
burt,  a  prosperous  city  of  about  fifteen  thousand  inhab- 
itants, famous  for  their  intense  national  feeling  and 
vigor  of  character,  the  black  cloud  of  rapine  and  de- 
struction next  fell.  Upon  this  most-hated  community 
of  Armenians,  with  a  ferocity  that  beggars  description, 
the  Turks  fell,  flushed  with  the  excitement  of  their  mur- 
derous work  which  had  begun  at  Trebizond  five  days 
earlier.  Authorities  differ  as  to  the  number  of  persons 
killed,  but  the  most  reliable  estimate  is  placed  at  one 
thousand.  The  carnage  was  terrible  ;  and,  when  the 
Turks  had  finished  their  bloody  work,  Baiburt  was 
but  a  forlorn  and  barely  recognizable  pile  of  ruined 
buildincjs. 

All  eyes  were  now  turned  upon  Erzrum,  which 
throughout  the  rule  of  the  Turks  has  been  the  most 
powerful  and  important  commercial  city  of  eastern 
Turkey.  It  is  the  point  of  divergence  for  the  various 
routes  from  the  eastern  end  of  the  Black  Sea  to  Persia, 
Bagdad,  and  central  Asia  Minor.  The  various  Euro- 
pean governments  concerned  in  eastern  Turkey  main- 
tain consulates  at  this  city.  It  has  an  altitude  of  six 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  and  is  surrounded  by  high 
mountains.  Its  climate  runs  to  extremes  of  heat  and 
cold,  while  its  close  proximity  to  the  Russian  border 
made  it  a  favored  point  of  attack  to  the  Russians  in 
the  different  Russo-Turkish  wars.  Twice  Erzrum  has 
fallen  into  the  Russians'  hands,  and  as  many  times  has 
been  released  by  special  treaty  stipulations.     The  pop- 


THE   TURKISH    CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  393 

ulation  of  the  city  is  fifty  thousand,  and  is  composed, 
to  a  great  extent,  of  Turks,  though  the  Armenians 
were  strong  numerically  and  still  stronger  financially. 
The  arrival  of  some  of  the  leaders  in  the  Trebizond 
and  Baiburt  massacres,  and  their  glowing  accounts  of 
Moslem  outrages,  aroused  the  Turks  to  a  high  pitch  of 
excitement.  The  police  apparently  endeavored  to 
maintain  peace,  and  as  the  time  for  an  attack  had  sev- 
eral times  been  set,  without  anything  taking  place,  the 
Armenians  concluded  that  the  talk  of  the  Turks  was 
mean  i  no-less. 

The  Armenians  were  therefore  in  their  accustomed 
places  on  Wednesday,  October  30,  totally  unconscious 
of  the  storm  that  was  about  to  break.  About  noon  the 
crack  of  musketry  was  heard  in  the  direction  of  the 
market-place.  Turks,  armed  to  the  teeth,  appeared 
rushing  towards  the  market,  firing  at  random  into  the 
houses  of  Armenians  along  the  way.  In  some  instances 
the  fire  was  returned.  Some  of  the  more  wealthy  Ar- 
menian merchants  had  stored  most  valuable  eoods  in 
the  mission  building  for  safety.  The  resident  Ameri- 
can missionary,  Mr.  Chambers,  had  just  dispatched  a 
telegram  to  the  Americans  at  Bitlis  to  inform  them  that 
all  was  well  at  Erzrum  and  to  inquire  of  their  condi- 
tion. As  he  was  returning  to  the  mission  buildino-  he 
noticed  a  spirit  of  unrest  along  the  one  straggling  mar- 
ket. An  Armenian  came  rushing  by,  shouting  to  his 
brethren  to  prepare  for  the  onslaught  of  the  Turks. 
Shops  were  being  hurriedly  closed  and  locked,  while 
some  merchants  endeavored  to  hide  their  wares. 
Shortly  the  firing  began.  Mr.  Chambers  made  haste 
to  regain   the   mission   building,  where  safety  was  as- 


394  THE   TURK   AND    THE    LAND    OF   HAIG. 

sured.  Bullets  began  to  fly  thick  and  fast,  and  the  din 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  bazaar  was  terrifying.  To  add  to 
the  general  confusion  a  large  fire  had  started  in  the 
extreme  western  part  of  the  city,  and  continued  for 
nearly  twenty-five  hours.  The  attack  was  made  in  dif- 
ferent sections  of  the  city  simultaneously,  and  woe  be- 
tide the  Armenian  who  exposed  the  least  part  of  his 
body  to  the  merciless  fire  of  the  Turks  !  Murder  and 
plundering  followed.  The  soldiers  were  most  aggres- 
sive. In  order  that  they  might  carry  away  more  plun- 
der, Turkish  women  accompanied  them,  and  lugged  off 
bundles  of  cloth,  furniture,  and  jewelry.  Great  pains 
were  taken  to  destroy  or  render  useless  the  food  that 
might  keep  off  starvation.  The  Turks  continued  their 
work  through  the  following  day,  and  then  quiet  reigned 
once  more.  After  waiting  several  hours  some  of  the 
more  fearless,  who  had  escaped  the  Turks  by  hiding, 
stole  forth  to  seek  their  homes,  which  were,  in  most 
cases,  found  to  be  ravished  and  uninhabitable. 

The  next  day,  Friday,  was  the  Moslem's  Sunday,  and 
although  Thursday  night  there  had  been  no  violence 
the  fears  of  the  Armenians  were  again  revived.  To 
add  to  their  apprehension,  the  Turks  and  soldiers  had 
openly  boasted  that  they  would  renew  their  ravages  on 
this  day.  Over  five  hundred  terrified  people  crowded 
into  the  mission  building  and  its  surrounding  grounds, 
and  they  could  in  no  way  be  induced  to  go  home.  As 
night  drew  on  and  hostilities  had  not  been  renewed, 
many  gained  courage  and  left  for  their  homes,  thereby 
reducing  the  number  to  about  two  hundred.  Nothing 
occurred  during  the  night,  and  Saturday  morning  the 
work  of  burying  the   dead  began.      It  was  a  sickening 


THE    TURKISH    CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  395 

sight   that  met   the   people  engaged  in  this  work.     Of 
one   thousand  killed   all  were  Armenian  men,  with  the 
exception  of  three  Armenian  women  and  a  number  of 
children,  besides  thirty  young  men  scarcely  out  of  their 
teens.     At  the  Armenian  Gregorian  Cemetery  a  trench 
150  feet  long  and  twenty  feet  wide  was  dug,  and  in   it 
were    laid    hundreds    of    bodies    of  dead    Armenians. 
Nowhere  could  a  dead  Turk   be  found.      Many  of  the 
bodies   were    burned,    others    were    mutilated    beyond 
recognition.     A  body  was  found  with  the  head  attached 
but  arms  and  legs  missing.     The  corpses  were  nearly 
naked,  and   in  some  cases  quite  so,  for  the  Turks  had 
stolen  everything  worth   stealing. 

After  the  massacre  had  subsided  the  English  and 
Italian  consuls,  accompanied  by  Tewfix  Bey  of  Shakir 
Pasha's  suite,  and  Mr.  Chambers,  inspected  the  Arme- 
nian quarters,  or  rather  what  was  left  of  them.  At  one 
place  they  found  the  naked  bodies  of  two  young 
women  who  had  been  brutally  murdered.  A  man  with 
sixteen  wounds  was  attended  by  Mr.  Chambers,  and 
another  whose  v/ounds  he  helped  to  dress  had  three 
awful  wounds  about  the  head,  two  sword  incisions  in 
his  back,  and  a  bullet  through  the  left  hand.  Injustice 
to  some  of  the  Turks,  it  must  be  said  that  there  were 
a  number  of  cases  where  Turks  attempted  to  save  their 
Armenian  friends,  and  several  instances  of  heroic 
rescues  are  recorded. 

Instances  were  not  only  shown  at  Erzrum,  but  dur- 
ing the  massacre  in  my  native  city,  Marsovan,  there 
were  found  a  number  of  Turks  who,  at  the  risk  of  their 
own  lives,  protected  their  Armenian  neighbors  and 
friends.      My  own   grandfather,  while  returning    from 


396        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

the  country  on  that  fatal  day  of  the  massacre  in  Mar- 
sovan,  was  seized  by  the  Turkish  mob,  who  were  like 
tigers,  roaring  for  blood.  They  tied  him  hand  and 
foot,  and  were  about  to  strike  the  fatal  blow,  when  a 
Turk  to  whom  my  grandfather  had  done  many  deeds 
of  kindness  rushed  to  his  rescue,  and  after  a  heroic 
strutTorJe  manaefed  to  save  his  aijed  Armenian  friend 
and  conducted  him  safely  home. 

As  intelligence  of  the  massacre  at  Erzrum  was 
spread  abroad  there  was  a  profound  sensation.  It 
seemed  impossible  that  such  a  thing  could  occur  in  a 
city  containing  Russian,  English,  and  French  consuls 
and  important  Turkish  officials,  but  such  skepticism 
will  vanish  in  the  light  of  later  events.  In  August, 
1896,  in  Constantinople  itself,  before  the  very  eyes  of 
all  the  European  ambassadors  and  consuls,  over  four 
thousand  Armenians  were  massacred  within  a  few  days. 
The  Turks  endeavored  by  every  subterfuge  to  make 
their  horrible  work  seem  justifiable.  They  spread 
ludicrous  reports  of  an  Armenian  revolution  that  they 
had  quelled,  and  told  of  vast  stores  of  arms  and  amuni- 
tion  that  the  revolutionists  had  in  hiding.  When  these 
alleged  places  of  hiding  were  found  and  searched 
there  was  nothing  to  substantiate  the  outrageous 
charges  of  the  Moslems. 

The  city  of  Harput  is  200  miles  southwest  of  Erzrum, 
and  about  20  miles  east  of  the  Euphrates.  Its  chief 
importance  lies  in  its  position,  for  it  is  the  center  of  a 
large  number  of  villages  covering  an  extended  plain 
and  constituting  tlie  only  section  of  Armenia  where  the 
Armenians  can  fairly  claim  to  constitute  a  majority  of 
the  population.     Although  the  city  itself  has  only  1500 


THE  TURKISH   CAMPAIGN  OF  BUTCHERY.  397 

Armenians  against  3500  of  Turkish  population,  yet  the 
surround.ng  plain  is  almost  entirely  Armenia^  The 
massacre  at  this  place,  which  made  the  entire  p  evince 
the  center  of  the  greatest  suffering  with   over  ■  00  000 

urkish     butcheries,    premeditated   and    prearranged 
Eat  and  dnnk  while  you  may.  for  within  eight  months 

you  will   be   killed,"  was  the  warning  of  a  Turk  to  an 

Armenian  family  which  had  just  arrived  in  this  co^ntrj 

liom  the  scene  of  blood  and  fire. 

If    the    massacres    are    provoked    by   revolutionary 

agitators,    as     the     Turkish     government   persistent  y 

Haiput,  for  throughout   the   district    the    people   are 
quiet,  peaceful,  and  submissive  folk,  while  self-restrain! 
and  intelligence  are   prominent   among  their  character- 
.St  cs.     The   missionaries  of  the  American  Board,  who 
have  made  the  cty   the  center  of  a  large  mission  and 
educationai  work,  had  always  been   on^riendi;  Ln  i 
«.th   the    government  officials,  and   felt  assured   that 
they    were    removed    from    any    possible  danger   o 
disturbance.  " 

The  Kurds  however,  gathered  together  in  crreat 
numbers  and  descended  upon  the  peaceful  plain  Tand 
the. villages  were  destroyed  and  their  inhab  tants 
scattered  or  killed.  The  marauders  did  not  at  once 
auack  the  cty,  although,  when  the  villages  had  been 
plundered,  they  turned  to  it  with  avaricious  eyes 
fhey   were    emboldened    by   the   co-operation    of  the 

beie  ">  1  ""  ''"'  ^"'  ^'"^^'==-  The  situation 
doTf  ,^^  f  alarming,  so  that  the  Armenians  were 
doubtful  of  their  safety  in   spite  of  the  repeated  assur- 


398  THE   TURK   AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

ances  of  the  Turkish  officials  that  no  Kurd  would  be 
allowed  to  enter  the  city. 

Soon  from  the  city  the  plain  presented  a  sad  view  of 
desolation  and  ruin.  By  day  bands  of  Kurds  rode 
fiercely  from  village  to  village,  brandishing  their 
weapons  and  in  many  instances  shooting  down 
Armenians  in  cold  blood.  At  night  the  sky  was 
illuminated  by  burning  villages,  and  the  glow  of  red 
that  hung  upon  the  horizon  seemed  a  portent  of  the 
redder  blood  that  was  to  flow  in  the  streets  of  Harput. 
It  was  not  safe  for  any  Armenian  to  leave  the  city, 
which  was  virtually  in  a  state  of  siege.  The  cordon 
of  fiendish  savages  was  drawing  nearer  the  city. 

On  Sunday,  November  lo,  the  worst  element  among 
the  Turks  in  the  city  began  a  noisy  demonstration,  and 
it  was  plain  that  the  crisis  was  not  far  off.  The  next 
day  a  village  on  the  plain,  only  a  short  distance  from 
the  city,  was  attacked.  After  two  hundred  had  been 
murdered,  and  as  many  wounded,  the  savages  advanced 
to  a  position  near  an  old  fortress  in  the  eastern  part 
of  the  city.  Turks  from  the  city  met  them,  and  the 
impression  was  given  that  a  council  was  being  held. 
Apparently  the  invaders  were  forbidden  to  attack  the 
markets,  from  which  it  was  known  that  all  the  mer- 
chandise had  been  removed.  The  deception  was 
carried  still  further  by  a  sham  battle,  which  made  it 
appear  that  the  soldiers  had  resisted  the  invasion  of 
the  city.  The  firing  had  not  continued  long  before  a 
signal  cannon  was  fired,  and  instantly  the  raiders  began 
their  work  of  murder  and  pillage  all  over  the  city. 
Amid  flame  and  smoke,  shout  and  groan,  and  saber 
strokes  and  death-shots  falling  thick  and  fast  as  lightnings 


THE   TURKISH    CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  399 

from  the  mountain   cloud,  the  refugees  sought  safety 
at  the  school  and  mission-buildings  and  churches.     The 
soldiers  protected  the  Kurds,  and  the  Turkish  military 
forces  did  not  make  the  slightest  move  to  repel  them, 
but    stood  by   and  saw  American  property  destroyed 
and  plundered  and  American  citizens  fired  upon  with- 
out  lifting  a  finger  to  prevent.      It  was  not  incendiarism 
but  official  destruction.      Nearly  one  hundred  houses  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  educational   and  missionary  build- 
ings were  burned,  and  then  those  buildings  began  to 
burn.      It  was  evident  that  the  plan  of  the  marauders 
was    to    destroy    these,  so  that    the  Americans    and 
refugees   would    have    no  shelter.     The    missionaries, 
with  their  several  hundred  people,  were  driven  from  one 
place  to  another  by  the  fire  and  the  whistling  of  bullets. 
The  savage   horde  shot   down  and  tortured  to  death 
those    who    would    not     abjure    their    Christian    faith. 
Quite  a  number  of  Armenians  fled  to  a  church  in  the 
vain  hope  that  its  sacred  walls  would  furnish  a  shelter 
against  those  who  were    raving  for   Christian  blood  ; 
but  the  doors  were   soon  battered  in  with  heavy  axes' 
and    as    their    Moslem    captors    appeared,  with    raised 
daggers,  the   shrieks  and  cries  of  the  helpless  women 
and  children   rose  louder  and   louder.     Their  captors 
dragged  them  out  of  the   church  one  at  a  time,  and, 
upon    their  firm    refusal    to  accept  Mohammed,' they 
were    killed    with    horrible    tortures.     The  Protestant 
pastor  of  the  church  was  the  first  victim,  and  as  he  was 
dragged  out  he  exhorted  the  others  to  die  like  himself 
— a  Christian  martyr. 

In  the  cities  of  Arabkir  and  Malitia   the  Armenians 
offered  resistance  to  the  ravishers,  but  only  succeeded  in 


400  THE   TURK    AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

Stirring  the  Turks  to  greater  deeds  of  violence.  They 
suffered  terribly,  while  the  Turks  lost  only  a  few  of 
their  numbers.  At  Malitia  five  thousand  Christians 
were  murdered,  and  at  Arabkir  two  thousand,  while  it 
is  estimated  that  not  more  than  four  hundred  Turks 
were  killed.  A  reliable  estimate  of  the  number  of 
Christians  killed  in  this  region  in  one  month  alone, 
commencing  with  the  latter  part  of  October,  1895,  is 
12,710.  The  houses  destroyed  numbered  5064.  The 
total  number  killed  in  the  vilayet  oi  Harput  is  estimated 
at  40,000,  including  those  who  perished  from  hunger 
and  cold;  wounded,  8000;  houses  burned,  28,789; 
forcibly  converted  to  Islam,  51,180;  raped,  5530; 
married  by  force  to  Turks,  1530. 

It  is  needless  to  enter  here  into  a  detailed  account 
of  all  the  massacres.  The  wave  of  carnage  that 
swept  over  the  empire,  from  Trebizond,  southward 
into  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  westward  to  Mar- 
sovan  and  Csesaria,  and  out  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
and  even  Constantinople  itself,  carried  in  its  over- 
whelming tides  death  and  destruction.  Sword,  fire, 
famine,  and  pestilence  have  accomplished  the  infernal 
design  of  the  oppressors.  Thousands  of  Armenian 
women  were  violently  carried  off  to  the  harems  of 
their  persecutors,  while  many  men  of  the  productive 
classes  are  doomed  to  languish  in  Turkish  dungeons, 
arrested  on  unexplained  charges  and  given  no  oppor- 
tunity to  vindicate  themselves.  Their  property  was 
stolen  or  destroyed,  and  in  many  instances  their  lands 
and  title  deeds  were  forcibly  seized  by  the  officers  of 
the  government.      In    the  face    of    the    misery    which 


THE   TURKISH   CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY. 


401 


befell  unfortunate  Armenia,  one  can  easily  imag- 
ine the  harrowing  prospect  of  the  winter  season  in 
that    cold   region,  when    many  thousands   of    innocent 


ARMENIAN    CHILDREN. 


orphans  and  widows,  stripped  of  everythincr  which 
makes  life  comfortable,  were  turned  over  to  exposure 
and  famine.  Nowhere  have  childhood  and  motherhood 
seen  darker  days  than  in  Armenia. 

As  to  the  nature  of  the  massacres,  it  is  obvious  that 


462  THt:   TURK   AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAlG. 

they  primarily  started  on  political  issues,  but  soon  the 
religious  element  overpowered  the  political.  Indeed, 
it  became  the  leading  issue  among  Moslems  whether 
Christians  should  longer  be  tolerated  in  a  land  where 
the  Caliph  of  Mohammed  has  the  sway  of  the  govern- 
ment. It  was  on  this  very  principle  that  the  Sultan 
ordered  a  general  massacre  soon  after  he  had  promised 
the  Powers  to  accept  the  proposed  reforms  giving 
Christians  within  the  six  vilayets  rights  that  depended 
on  their  number.  The  massacres  have  been  chiefly 
confined  to  these  vilayets,  the  object  being  so  to 
reduce  the  number  of  Christians  as  to  give  them  no 
possible  claim  to  any  influence.  The  work  of  exter- 
mination— pillage,  rapine,  and  murder — proceeded 
systematically. 

The  Turkish  Question  as  it  now  stands  is  distinctly 
religious,  and  stands  above  humanitarian  and  political 
considerations.  "  Mohammed  or  the  sword  "  has  been 
the  cry  in  all  the  scenes  of  the  massacres,  yet  the 
Armenians  have  asserted  the  same  firmness  in  their 
adherence  to  Christianity  as  they  had  through  the 
vicissitudes  of  long  centuries.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Cyrus 
Hamlin,  who  above  all  living  Americans  has  made 
himself  master  of  the  facts,  by  long  years  of  toil  and 
achievement  in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  corroborates  my 
assertion  at  this  point  when  he  says  : 

But  there  is  one  noble  trait  that  has  come  out  in  this  terrible 
persecution  which  lias  astonished  the  world  and  has  enraged  the 
bloody  persecutors. 

It  is  the  firm  refusal  of  men  and  women — of  young  men  as  well 
as  of  old — to  save  life  by  professing  Islam.  The  confession  is 
very  brief.      Only  say:    "There  is  but  one  God  and  Mohammed  is 


THE   TURKISH   CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  4O3 

his  Prophet,"  and  wear  the  Moslem  turban,  and  your  life  is 
spared. 

The  eighty  to  one  hundred  thousand  who  have  perished  might 
have  saved  their  lives  by  this  confession,  and  by  then  adopting 
the  Moslem  dress  and  worship  and  trampling  upon  the  Cross. 
They  have  died  the  death  of  martyrs.  Many  have  saved  their 
lives  by  this  confession,  it  is  true,  but  most  of  these  acknowledge 
their  present  extreme  wretchedness,  and  some  have  been  killed 
for  showing  this  keen  regret. 

There  is  now  an  immense  number  of  sufferers  scattered  through 
all  the  regions  where  massacres  have  occurred,  who  have  lost 
fathers,  brothers,  property,  dwellings,  and  who  are  simply  fight- 
ing for  life.  Many  thousands  of  them  will  perish  of  cold  and 
famine  next  winter.  Their  number  is  estimated  at  from  three  to 
four  hundred  thousand.  They  suffer  for  clothing,  for  food,  and 
for  shelter.  As  all  their  tools  have  been  destroyed  or  stolen, 
their  miserable  "  dug-outs"  resemble  the  lairs  of  wild  beasts. 

And  yet  all  this  they  endure  rather  than  deny  the  faith.  They 
suffer  *' scourgings  and  cruel  mockings,  yea,  moreover,  of  bonds 
and  imprisonments — they  wander  about  in  sheepskins  and  goat- 
skins, being  destitute,  afflicted,  tormented." — Heb.  xi.  36,  etc. 

All  these  can  escape  their  misery  by  professing  Islam.  They, 
as  well  as  the  thousands  slain,  are  martyrs  of  Jesus.  They  may 
be  much  less  enlightened  in  Christian  doctrine  than  we,  but  they 
have  a  faith  that  enables  them  to  "resist  unto  blood."  I'hey 
suffer  ti^e  most  cruel  torture  and  death  rather  than  say 
Mohammed  is  Lord  and  not  Jesus  of  Nazareth.* 

The  failure  of  Christendom  to  protect  its  co-re- 
ligionists has  proved  a  great  moral  disaster,  for  not 
only  have  the  Christian  victims  lost  faith  in  the 
sincerity  of  tlie  great  nations  who  profess  Christ,  but 
the  Moslem  world  has  taken  it  as  an  acknowledgment 
that     Christianity     is     inferior    to     Mohammedanism. 

*  From  an  article  entitled  "  Tiie  Lesson  of  Armenia,"  in  the  Presbyterian,  for 
November  4,  1896. 


404        THE  TURK  AND  THE  LAND  OF  HAIG. 

Christians  do  not  believe  in  the  propagation  of  their 
faith  b}^  force  of  arms  as  do  Moslems.  But  Christians 
have  the  rigrht  to  insist  that  the  powers  of  their 
government  should  be  used  for  the  protection  of  those 
who   hold   the   Christian   faith. 

But  the  Armenian  appeals  to  ChrisLendoni  for  pro- 
tection and  freedom  are  not  simply  based  on  their 
religious  affiliation  and  unity  of  creed  ;  for  the 
Mohammedan  Turks  have  just  as  nuicli  right  to  rule 
over  the  Christian  population  in  Armenia  as  the  Chris- 
tian English  have  to  rule  over  the  Mohammedan 
population  in  India.  But  when  our  people  are  singled 
out  on  account  of  their  relio^ion  and  robbed  and 
tortured  and  killed,  there  we  find  a  leL;itimate  ground 
on  which  to  call  for  interference  on  the  ground  of 
common    humanity. 

Cold  indeed  must  be  the  heart  that  is  not  touched 
by  the  story  of  the  atrocious  deeds  of  the  Turk.  The 
tales  of  the  dead  are  sad,  those  of  the  living  more  sad. 
Thousands  of  them  have  been  deported,  and  those  who 
remain  are  terrorized  into  silence.  But  the  histor)-  of 
those  awful  da\s.  when  the  tides  of  massacre, dust,  and 
rapine  raged  throughout  the  cities  and  plains  of  our 
unhappy  land,  has  been  ineffaceabl)'  written,  and  the 
blood  of  her  hundred  thousand  martyrs  still  cries 
aloud    from    earth    to   heaven. 

The  thought  of  home  and  native  land  fills  ni)'  heart 
with  mingled  feelings  of  gloom  and  rage.  Many  a 
youthful  friend  and  schoolmate  with  whom  I  had  spent 
the  happiest  days  of  my  life  in  walks  and  talks  and  sports 
under  the  arching  trees  of  my  father's  vineyard — many 
a  bright  boy  of  marked  future  possibilities  with  whom 


THE   TURKISH    CAMPAIGN   OF   BUTCHERY.  405 

I  had   dreamed   by  the  babbhno-   brooks  the  dream  of 
youth — lies  to-day  in  an  unknown  grave. 

WHAT    IS    TO    BE    DONE  ? 

There  seems  to  me  only  one  possible  course  of 
action  for  my  people  to  take,  especially  for  the  yountr, 
and  that  is  to  seek  in  other  lands  and  among-  liberty- 
loving  people  new  homes  and  new  hopes  of  enterprise  ; 
to  seek  some  land  where  they  can  work  and  receive 
the  benefits  of  their  toll,  where  they  can  worship  Him 
who  has  granted  them  freedom  of  conscience  ;  a  place 
where  they  can  own  themselves,  where  honest  thouo-ht 
and  labor  make  vantage  ground  from  which  their 
posterity  may  climb  to  nobler  heights.  This  newest 
Land  of  the  Free,  which,  from  the  early  advent  of  its 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  has  been  an  asylum  for  the  oppressed 
and  persecuted  from  every  clime — why  may  it  not 
open  its  hospitable  doors  and  extend  its  welcome  to 
the  oldest  remnant  of  early  Christianity  to  share  the 
heritage  of  freedom  within  its  borders?  Utterly  hope- 
less and  helpless  in  the  midst  of  everlasting  oppres- 
sion, the  young  Armenian  looks  to  America  as  his 
ideal  Utopia.  No  doubt  there  are  many,  particularly 
those  advanced  in  years,  who  would  cling  to  their 
fatherland,  no  matter  how  dark  the  adversity.  Yet 
there  are  many,  particularly  the  younger  element  of 
the  Armenians,  who,  though  with  much  regret,  are 
being  led  to  desert  their  homes  and  firesides. 

Quite  a  number  of  Armenians  have  already  come 
hither,  and  still  larger  numbers  of  them  will  come  if 
they   are   encouraged  with  employment   and  practical 


4o6  THE   TURK  AND   THE   LAND   OF   HAIG. 

sympathy.  Of  course  it  is  not  an  easy  matter  for  the 
Armenians  to  cret  out  of  the  country  that  has  cursed 
them.-  The  refugees  are  restrained  by  the  vigilant 
Turkish  authorities,  wlio,  like  Pharaoh's  hosts  in  deal- 
ing with  Israel,  would  rather  slay  them  than  to  permit 
them  to  go. 

Only  recently  two  of  my  younger  brothers  came  to 
this  countr}'.  The  first  to  arrive  here  was  shot  at 
while  in  the  old  country,  and  doubtless  would  have 
been  killed  had  he  not  been  careful  and  speedy  in 
his  flight.  He  was  actually  smuggled  over  to  this 
country.  He  was  living  at  the  time  in  Samsun,  one  of 
the  ports  of  the  Black  Sea.  After  much  planning  and 
trial  he  manaired  to  evade  the  viorilance  of  the  Turkish 
officers,  and  boarded  one  of  the  European  steamers, 
where  the  captain  kept  him  over  a  week  rn  the  hold 
of  the  ship,  until  the  steamer  finally  left  Turkish 
waters.  This  instance  serves  to  show  why  more 
Armenians  do  not  leave  Turkey.  My  brother's  case 
was  a  very  easy  one.  He  did  not  have  to  contend 
with  difficulties  to  secure  a  passport,  an  almost  insur- 
mountable difficulty  to  the  average  refugee.  Cannot 
the  United  States  government  effect  an  understanding 
with  Turkey  by  which  Armenian  emigrants  to  Ameri- 
can shores  may  have  a  safe-conduct  through  the 
Sultan's   domain  ? 

There  are  now  upward  of  ten  thousand  Armenians 
in  this  country — all  good  citizens  and  peaceable,  sober, 
and  orderly  members  of  society.  There  are  among 
them  even  professors  and  teachers  in  American  schools 
and  colleges,  as  well  as  ministers  of  the  gospel.  I 
have  watched  the  career  of  many  an  Armenian  refugee 


THE   TURKISH   CAMPAIGN   OF  BUTCHERY.  407 

within  the  past  two  or  three  years,  and  I  can  truth- 
fully say  that  their  industry  and  behavior  have  been 
for  the  most  part  a  credit  to  the  race.  Once  in  a 
land  of  freedom,  they  have,  in  grateful  acknowledg- 
ment, made  it  their  duty  to  advance  the  interest's 
of  the  country  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge.  Being 
of  a  kindred  race  and  religion,  they  readily  conform 
to  the  institutions  and  ideas  of  their  new  habitation. 
To  say  that  the  Armenians  are  a  law-abiding  people 
is  a  trite  assertion.  Scarcely  ever  have  the  criminal 
courts  had  any  dealings  with  our  people. 

Several  years  before  the   massacre   I   began   in  my 
public  lectures   to   firmly  advocate    Armenian    emigra. 
tion  and  colonization   in  the   United    States.      I   knew 
the  sufferings  and  outrages   to  whicli  my  people  were 
subjected   in  the  Old  World,  and    I    could  predict   for 
them  a  better  existence  in  the  New^      I  wms  led   to  this 
conviction    not   only   by   my  high  esteem   and  love  for 
the   American   people,  but   by   the   happy  and,  for  the 
most    part,   contented    disposition   of    my  countrymen 
who    were    scattered    around    me.      Particular!)-    when 
the  recent   massacre   in   Turke)-  came   on    I    felt   most 
keenly    for    the    flower    of     Armenian     manhood    and 
womanhood  who   perished  there,  and   who  might   have 
been  saved  here  for  higher  usefulness. 

In  the  preceding  pages  .1  have  endeavored  to 
present  the  history  and  portray  as  accurately  as 
possible  the  conditions  of  my  beloved  race. 

As  I  pen  these  last  few  words  my  mind  instinctively 
turns  to  my  countrymen,  zealous  in  the  faith,  constant 
to  the  right— the  type  of  a  fearless,  honorable  race. 


408  THE   TURK   AND   THE    LAND   OF   HAIG. 

Providence  has  so  ordained  that  the  people  of  the 
earth  should  be  divided  into  nations,  the  governments 
and  laws  of  which  are  as  diverse  as  the  ideas  peculiar 
to  their  originators.  We  may  be  united  in  civilization 
and  common  sympathies,  but  the  patriot  is  ever  proud 
of  and  partial  to  the  land  which  has  given  him  birth. 

Christianity  is  broader  than  any  constitution,  more 
effective  than   the  most  wise   laws  of  men.      Its  kinor. 

o 

dom  is  confined  to  no  territory  and  has  no  limitations 
to  its  power.  We  are  all  patriots  of  that  kingdom, 
and  it  is  not  only  loyalty  to  my  country  but  loyalty 
to  the  broader,  more  glorious  kingdom,  that  prompts 
me  to  turn  my  purposes  and  energy  to  her  welfare. 

The  light  of  morning  already  tints  the  eastern  sky, 
but  the  mists  still  risine  from  man's  icrnorance  and 
superstition  obscure  the  rays  and  hide  the  sun.  When, 
rising  over  hill  and  valley  with  its  glorious  splen- 
dor, God's  own  light  shines  in  the  zenith  of  the 
heavens,  the  obscuring  mists  all  cleared  away,  then, 
and  not  till  then,  will  the  soul  of  man  be  fully 
illumined  and  his  destin}'  made  clear. 


THE    END. 


^- 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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